by @ Social Media Marketing Podcast helps your business thrive with social media

Fri May 05 03:00:21 PDT 2017

Do you track the return on your social media activity in Google Analytics?
Want to discover some valuable shortcuts?
To explore cool hacks for Google Analytics, I interview Annie Cushing.
More About This Show
The Social Media Marketing podcast is an on-demand talk radio show from Social Media Examiner. It's designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.
In this episode, I interview Annie Cushing, Google Analytics expert and chief data officer at Outspoken Media digital marketing agency. She's a total analytics geek who loves teaching other marketers how to make the most of their analytics data.
Annie explores Google Analytics, social reporting, dashboards, and more.
You'll discover how to customize Google Analytics reports for yourself.
Share your feedback, read the show notes, and get the links mentioned in this episode below.
Listen Now
You can also subscribe via iTunes, RSS, or Stitcher.
Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show:
Google Analytics and Social Media
What's New in Google Analytics
Starting May 15, 2017, Google Analytics will allow people to do remarketing across multiple devices. Annie explains that if someone visits your site on their mobile device and then comes back to it on their laptop, as long as they're logged into Google in both places, you'll be able to target them across their devices. This new capability is a huge step forward for remarketing audiences because few people shop only on their computer, tablet, or phone.
Annie explains that Google previously relied on user IDs to offer remarketing features, but most businesses couldn't implement the technology very easily. Only advanced analysts could set it up for sites where users were highly incentivized to log in. Because most businesses don't have sites like that, this new ability is groundbreaking.
Annie says one issue she regularly sees with clients is they seldom use Google Analytics for retargeting. Instead, they use AdWords and DoubleClick.
However, Google Analytics enables marketers to get much more granular with targeting. For instance, you can serve an ad to someone who visited a certain page but didn't convert or to someone who put something in a cart but didn't check out. Hopefully, multiple-device retargeting will incentivize more people to take advantage of Google Analytics.
Listen to the show to discover how a retargeting ad saved Annie last Christmas.
Google Optimize
Google recently announced they were releasing Google Optimize, a free tool for A/B testing. For example, say you want to experiment with product page design, such as the placement of the price or Buy button or different font colors or text. In an A/B test, you run two versions of your page and compare how each version performs.
Up until this point, Optimizely has been the industry standard. At Social Media Examiner, we use Visual Website Optimizer.
Annie believes Google Optimize is perfect for small- to mid-sized or even large businesses. (Google Optimize 360 is the enterprise-level version.) Annie recommends that businesses get what they can from the free version first. Then as your organization develops more sophisticated testing needs (for instance, reducing the bounce rate or increasing the conversion rate), consider paying for more advanced features.
Annie also notes that Google Optimize is user-friendly. To move things around, you simply drag and drop. You don't have to ask a developer to customize the page for you.
Listen to the show to hear my description of how optimizing tools work.
Ad Blockers and Do-not-track Technology
Annie explains how ad blockers and do-not-track tools impact your analytics data differently.
If you run display ads on AdWords, then ad blockers will impact your overall effectiveness. As people choose to block ads, impressions and conversions will decrease. A lot of publishers,

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Tue Jul 21 02:00:02 PDT 2015

Do you want to build a personal brand?
Interested in ways to differentiate yourself from others?
Social media is a great way to develop a personal identity, establish a reputation and stand out in your industry.
In this article you'll discover how to use social media to build your personal brand.
Why Personal Branding?
To understand personal branding, start by doing a Google search for your name.
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Chances are you'll see a list of your prominent social profiles (namely LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook) in your search results. Google gives high authority to all of the main social media platforms. Ultimately, the more active you are on a particular platform, the higher that profile is ranked.
Your personal blog, website and images are probably ranked high too, as social media and content creation are fundamental parts of personal branding SEO.
Remember that everything you do online is a representation of your personal brand. Here are some ways to start shaping your message and how you're perceived.
#1: Define Your Objective
What do you hope to achieve when people search for your name? What do you want them to see?
If you want people to see your work experience and receive new opportunities in your area of expertise, concentrate on developing your LinkedIn profile first. If you want to promote your content to a wider audience, try increasing your Twitter followers. If you're trying to sell artwork, Pinterest is your best option. You get the idea.
Here are some other possible goals:
"I Want to Start My Own Business"
If you're a budding entrepreneur, your personal brand could make the difference in whether your idea is successful. When people research you online, what they learn about you can be a deciding factor in whether they invest in your idea.
"I Want to Differentiate Myself From Competitors"
With a strong persona and unique branding proposition, you're almost guaranteed to stand out from the crowd. In a competitive marketplace, it's important to show what makes you different.
"I Want to Sell More"
This goes without saying: When your personal brand is strong and you make yourself appealing enough that people want to connect with you, chances are you'll sell more of your product or service.
#2: Identify Up to Three Areas of Expertise
What do you want to be known for? Whom do you want to connect with? The Internet is flooded with entrepreneurs and experts, so you need to determine what makes you unique.
You might be more than just a social media marketer. Your interests could be as broad as Peruvian cooking or dolphin training, but don't choose more than three.
Your areas of expertise define who you are and what you do. They're used for writing your social media profile descriptions and should include your main keywords.
#3: Make a List of Profile Links
Store links to all of your social media profiles in a spreadsheet. You might have 10 or even 30 profiles (the more, the better). If you have a large number of profiles, prepare to carve out time to be active on these channels.
Review each of your social media profiles regularly and update them to ensure they contain your most current information, such as your work info, website URL, social links, etc.
#4: Develop a Strong Positioning Statement
A positioning statement is a brief summation of who you are, what you do and what you stand for. Typically, positioning statements are created for brands or products, but in this case you're developing one for you.
When creating your statement, always keep your audience in mind. Although the statement is about you, it's not necessarily for you. It's for the people you're trying to connect with.
Describe what differentiates you from other people in your area of expertise. If you're not quite sure what that is, take time to research some of the well-known people in your field. Take note of their tactics,

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Mon Sep 28 02:00:53 PDT 2015

Do you use social media to sell your products?
Looking for tools to simplify the process?
The right tools make it easier to build relationships with people who are interested in what you offer.
In this article you'll discover four tools to simplify your social selling.
Listen to this article:
#1: Find Shared Connections With Discover.ly
A key part of selling via social media is making first contact with users who are primed to buy. When the users you're reaching out to happen to be influencers on social networks, the dividends are potentially higher. A big challenge, however, is breaking the ice and initiating a conversation.
This is where Discover.ly comes in. It's a social plugin for your browser that maps out the friends or followers you have in common with a potential connection.
When you browse social networks with the Discover.ly browser extension active, you can see all of the friends you have in common with an influencer. You can then ask your shared connections for an introduction and get a leg up on converting the influencer to a customer.
Discover.ly also offers social data about people, such as their latest tweets or recent pictures posted to Instagram. With this information, you can reach out to influencers in a way that creates a familiar bond, which (if nurtured) might eventually lead to real-world sales.
#2: Tap Online Interest With Talkwalker
Tracking what your target audience is saying about your brand is important. This information helps you be more knowledgeable when communicating with people and targeting potential customers.
Talkwalker is a great way to take the pulse of your audience. Using it, you see detailed insights about who's talking about your brand, what their interests are and what they like or dislike about you. If you want to identify posts that express intent to purchase, use advanced search queries such as "I am looking for (your product)," "can anyone recommend a good (your service)" or "I want to buy (your product)."
Talkwalker also benchmarks your brand against the competition and shows you where you fall short and where you succeed. The alert system ensures you'll receive notifications about online mentions of your brand, products and competitors. This information puts you in a position to act in a timely manner.
#3: Showcase Product Images With Pablo
If you take a cursory glance at the top social media networks, you'll realize that excepting LinkedIn, every platform has a strong visual component to it. There's a reason for that. According to an Ethos3 infographic, 90% of the information that our brains process is in visual form.
Of all of the content that your target audience consumes, they actually retain 80% of the visual content, but only 20% of text-based content. If you're selling a product, showing an attractive image of it is four times more effective from a retention perspective.
What's more, visual content gets shared on social media 40 times more often than plain text-based content. So if you produce an engaging image or infographic, potential buyers on social media are likely to spread the word on your behalf.
Pablo by Buffer is a great tool for creating original and shareworthy images to highlight your products and services.
You can also add a text overlay to your image. Imagine a product shot with a clever tagline and a price attached to it. Add a logo too if you want to ensure your brand doesn't get lost in the conversation.
#4: Respond to Customer Inquiries With IFTTT
Marketers today have a critical opportunity that previous generations lacked: the ability to respond in real time to user actions. You might already track visitors and offer personalized content and responses when they're on your site. But what about social media? How do you respond to a statement like "Can't wait to see what the new Windows 10 looks like. Gotta try it!"?
You can respond quickly to user activity on social media with I...

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Tue Jul 28 02:00:11 PDT 2015

Are you thinking of adding Snapchat to your social media marketing mix?
Interested in ways to use Snapchat to strengthen your brand?
With Snapchat, you can increase community engagement and brand awareness through innovative marketing campaigns.
In this article you'll discover five ways to use Snapchat for business.
Why Snapchat?
With over 100 million daily active users and 400 million snaps per day, Snapchat is one of the fastest-growing social networks. As you might already assume, 71% of Snapchat's U.S. users fall into the 18 to 34 age range. Even if your audience doesn't fall in that demographic, Snapchat is becoming a vital part of global marketing strategies.
Listen to this article:
Brands and content creators are using Snapchat to produce daily stories that engage and excite audiences. Snapchat stories, which last only 24 hours, are a string of snaps used to create a video narrative. There are over 1 billion views of Snapchat stories each day.
You can have a lot of fun with the platform's native tools and features by adding filters, geofilters, text, emojis, music and more, all from within the platform.
Here are five ways you can use Snapchat to surprise and delight your audience and grow awareness for your brand.
#1: Provide Access to Live Events
Snapchat is perfect for real-time social media marketing because it can give the audience direct access to live events. You can use it for product launches, trade shows or one-of-a-kind events like the 1,000th customer to shop in your store. Snapchat gets your audience excited because you're providing a different, more authentic view of what's going on at the event.
The NBA has used Snapchat in a variety of ways including at the Draft, All-Star Game and Finals. At the 2014 All-Star Game, the NBA launched their presence on Snapchat, and fans were able to watch videos from L.A. Clippers star Chris Paul, and up-close snaps of the Slam Dunk Contest.
During the 2014 Finals, the NBA posted a backstage video clip of Boston Celtics legend Bill Russell with San Antonio Spurs star Kawhi Leonard.
#2: Deliver Private Content
You can also use Snapchat to provide special content to your audience that they might not receive on other digital platforms. Think of something unique to surprise your community of followers.
Fashion brands like Rebecca Minkoff and Michael Kors have used Snapchat to debut their collections to followers before they hit the runway.
At a Valentino show for Fashion Week in Paris, actors Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson took it a step further and reprised their Zoolander roles as Derek Zoolander and Hansel for a runway walk-off. They even had a "Blue Steel" geofilter at the fashion show.
The use of Snapchat at Fashion Week made consumers feel included in an exclusive world, and by doing so, they felt like they were part of the event.
#3: Offer Contests, Perks or Promotions
Everyone loves social media giveaways and promotions, so think of ways you can keep your followers coming back for more. For example, you could offer promo codes or discounts to the fans who watch your entire Snapchat story, or ask them to take a snap while holding your product.
GrubHub succeeds in Snapchat community engagement with a variety of promotions, exclusive deals and contests. In fact, they were the first brand to execute a Snapchat scavenger hunt. Each day during the five-day campaign, they asked their followers to post a daily snap, whether it was a food selfie or a food doodle.
This innovative campaign showcased GrubHub's brand personality and created two-way communication between consumers and the brand. The company was able to capture user-generated content while increasing loyalty, which is a recipe for Snapchat success.
#4: Take People Behind the Curtain
With Snapchat, you can provide behind-the-scenes content to your community, which helps create and engage a strong following.

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Tue May 10 03:00:41 PDT 2016

Are you struggling to remain visible in Facebook's news feed?
Wondering how Facebook decides what to show in the news feed?
In this article you'll discover how the Facebook news feed algorithm works, what's been updated, and how marketers can respond to create more visibility on Facebook.
Listen to this article:
#1: Facebook Prioritizes Content Topics in the News Feed Based on the Time a User Spends on Similar Content
Previously, Facebook said it wouldn't give higher organic reach to instant articles in the news feed. However, that didn't mean instant articles would not be part of its algorithm to determine what posts should get more organic reach in the news feed.
According to Facebook's first post on the change, Facebook will now use time spent reading or watching content as a signal that a particular story was important to the user. Content includes video, instant articles, and articles loaded in the mobile browser from the Facebook app. The time spent viewing signal will be used to predict what other content users might find interesting, and will show users similar content in their news feed.
Here's how you can use time spent viewing to your advantage:
If you want more people to see your content in the news feed, make sure that people stick around long enough to consume your content. Whether it's video, instant articles, or content that people load in the mobile browser from the Facebook app, the key is to create content that keeps people engaged.
You can do this a couple of different ways. For starters, be sure that your content delivers what the headline promises. You need to craft a headline that's irresistible enough to click, and include a video or article introduction to show you'll deliver on that headline.
You can create longer videos and articles; however, not too long. Facebook looks at the time spent on a piece of content within a maximum threshold.
The goal is to make sure that people don't click through to your content and immediately click away from it.
#2: Facebook Plans to Add Diversity to News Feed Sources
While researching its Feed Quality program, Facebook learned that users want to see wide-ranging content from different publishers, as opposed to back-to-back articles from the same source. Hence, Facebook will reduce how often users see several posts in a row from the same source in their news feed.
Here's how you can use diversity to your advantage:
This is a tricky one, especially for content publishers that publish 5+ posts per day. Authors who write on a variety of publications are the real winners. Essentially, those authors could end up being seen in the news feed multiple times per day because their content would come from different sources.
Businesses using quality guest blogging as a tactic for gaining exposure in their industry should consider spreading content to multiple sites for better organic exposure in the Facebook news feed.
Another way to be more diverse and still appear multiple times in the news feed is to repurpose content.
Effectively, you could share multiple pieces of content per day from different sources (your blog, your Medium blog, Facebook notes, your LinkedIn Publisher blog, etc.), along with different Facebook accounts (your page, employee profiles with public followers, your groups, etc.).
#3: Facebook Wants to Connect Users With the Stories That Matter Most to Them
Facebook's second post about the news feed algorithm updates was a video from the F8 conference about how the news feed works with Adam Mosseri, VP of product management for news feed. He states that Facebook's mission is to connect users with the stories that matter most to them.
Here's how you can use Facebook's news feed mission to your advantage:
Ultimately, Facebook's news feed mission should also be your mission each time you create content, whether it's on Facebook, your blog, or any other social network.

by @ Social Media Marketing Podcast helps your business thrive with social media

Fri Dec 23 03:00:24 PST 2016

Do you have a blog?
Want to supercharge your content and increase email subscribers?
To explore advanced techniques for improving blog content, collecting more email addresses, and promoting products and events, I interview Darren Rowse.
More About This Show
The Social Media Marketing podcast is an on-demand talk radio show from Social Media Examiner. It's designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.
In this episode, I interview Darren Rowse, one of the world's leading experts on blogging. He's the founder of two popular blogs: Digital Photography School and ProBlogger. He also co-authored the book ProBlogger and hosts the ProBlogger podcast.
Darren shares how he learned to better serve the needs of his readers.
You'll discover how Darren uses portal pages and what goes into creating them.
Share your feedback, read the show notes, and get the links mentioned in this episode below.
Listen Now
You can also subscribe via iTunes, RSS, or Stitcher.
Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show:
Advanced Blogging
Determine What Type of Content to Create
Darren started by writing what he was excited about in the moment, and he believes that's a great place for bloggers to start because their writing comes across as passionate. However, for bloggers to build expertise in a niche, he notes, they need to put more thought into it. Darren says there are two parts to achieving that outcome.
First, you need to understand the people who read your blog and what their needs are. Ultimately, Darren's content ideas come from the conversations he has with readers; this determines what he writes about.
Second, you should develop before and after avatars. The before avatar represents who his readers are when they come to the blog, and the after avatar represents who he wants his readers to become. Use your avatars to fill in what your readers need to move from the before avatar to the after avatar, he explains.
For example, readers first come to the Digital Photography School blog because they don't know how to use their cameras to full potential. The "after" readers have full creative control of their cameras, along with the confidence, knowledge, and technical skills to get out of automatic mode and take their photography to the next level. Give them what they want and sell them what they need.
For example, readers who come to Darren's blog to get photography tips realize they need more help when they return from vacation and discover their photos didn't reflect their journey. His ebook, A Guide to Captivating Travel Photography: Transcending Travel, delivers the things they didn't realize they didn't know, such as tips to help lift their photos.
Darren used this exercise for the first time in 2006, and came up with 200 things his blog readers needed to know. Those notations became the first 200 posts on the site.
Listen to the show to discover how Darren uses what he knows about what people need to collect email subscribers, attract Facebook fans, sell products, and more.
Develop an Editorial Strategy
Darren shares the nine different elements he and his team work through each year to figure out their editorial strategy.
Voice: Is your content more conversational, teaching, or storytelling?
Evergreen vs. Time-sensitive Content: What's the proper ratio? Darren's photography blog leans more toward evergreen, but he notes others may need to create more time-sensitive content.
Intent: Is your aim to inform, inspire, educate, or interact? Darren's blogs focus on information and education, but mix in inspirational and interactive content here and there. As an example of content created to drive interaction, Darren says Digital Photography School does a challenge post each week in which they prompt readers to take photos using a specific technique and then share the photos in the comments.

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Mon May 16 02:00:42 PDT 2016

Do you use LinkedIn to find business opportunities?
Are you looking for tips to reach new leads?
LinkedIn has a number of features that make it easy to develop relationships with the right prospects for your business.
In this article, you'll discover four ways to use LinkedIn for business.
Listen to this article:
#1: Identify Warm Prospects
With over 420 million global members, LinkedIn is the best social media platform for businesses to find and connect with potential prospects.
It provides an effective way to bypass gatekeepers and directly access your ideal clients. Finding and connecting directly with these decision-makers will not only save you time and energy, but will also make you more successful in your prospecting activities.
The best place to start is with warm prospects, and here's where to look for them.
Who's Viewed Your Posts
If you post on LinkedIn Publisher, you can find warm prospects on the Who's Viewed Your Posts page. Look below the graph and demographics for each post, and you'll see a list of every person who has interacted with the post. You can view them by Likes, Comments, and Shares, and you can even see what they said in their comment or share.
Not only are these people familiar with you, but they've also had a positive interaction with your content. If you find someone who matches your target client, send a personalized connection request mentioning their comment or share.
Followers
Look at the top of your followers list to see the people you're not connected to. These people like your content and posts so much they've chosen to follow you and receive notifications about you, even though you're not connected to them.
Be sure to do a little research and look for a good reason to connect when you send a personalized connection request to them.
Updates
On your Updates page, you'll find every piece of content you've interacted with, whether you posted it or just engaged with it.
Scroll through your most recent interactions. In each post, look at the people who posted or commented. If you hover over their name, you'll be able to see if you're connected with them.
If you aren't connected and would like to be, go to their profile page and send a connection request that references the post.
Who's Viewed Your Profile
The people listed on the Who's Viewed Your Profile page are people who have visited your profile.
If you have a free account, you can look below the graph at the top to see the last five people who've viewed your profile. If you have a premium account, you'll have access to the entire list for the last 90 days.
If you see anyone you're not connected to and connecting would be a benefit, consider sending a connection request. When personalizing it, find another reason he or she would find value from connecting; not just saying, "I saw you viewed my profile." If seeing your profile was a good enough reason to connect, that person would have already sent you a connection request.
#2: Create Trust
It doesn't help you to simply "collect connections." Once you've found and connected with potential prospects or partners, it's important to build a relationship with your connections.
There are a number of ways that you can strengthen your relationships and stay top of mind.
Comment and Share
An easy way to interact and get on the radar of your connections is to comment on or share their status updates and Publisher posts. Ensure that you tag them when appropriate, as this both alerts them to your share or comment and also gives them exposure to your network.
In the case of both comments and sharing, always make sure that your engagement with your connection makes sense and doesn't come across as spammy or unprofessional, and that you only post content that will be of real benefit or interest to your network.
Make Introductions
Few things leave as strong an impression as when someone gives witho...

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Mon Jun 15 02:00:28 PDT 2015

Want to give existing content new life and greater visibility?
Looking for a way to publish more often without much extra work?
Use LinkedIn Publisher to consistently provide useful content for your audience, gain visibility and build your professional identity without writing anything new!
In this article you’ll discover three ways to give existing content new life using LinkedIn Publisher.
Listen to this article:
#1: Republish Blog Posts
One of the fastest ways to get started on LinkedIn is to copy and paste your complete content posts from other blogs. If you decide to go this route, there are a couple of things to keep in mind.
It's important to understand how Google views duplicate content.
You should wait at least two weeks after the post publishes before you republish it to LinkedIn. That gives the bots from search engines enough time to index and understand which post is the original, and rank it higher than republished content.
Barry Feldman posted an article on LinkedIn a month after it originally appeared on his blog.
To let readers know where to find the original post, include a sentence at the beginning or end that directs readers to the original version. This is especially important when you republish your guest post from another company's blog and it's a nice rule of thumb to adopt when you republish your own content.
Readers will know where they can find more of your articles. Plus, they'll see you're honest about republishing your post.
Take the time to craft a headline that's a little different and specific to the LinkedIn platform.
For example, when Guillaume Decugis republishes content on LinkedIn, Medium and other syndication sites, he changes the title of each post to distinguish and optimize it. Then readers who search for the keyword will see multiple versions of the headline on the first page of search engine results.
Remember, treat LinkedIn Publisher as a distribution channel, where the goal is to increase visibility and grow your audience. Send people back to your blog, so they can get to know more about you and your business.
#2: Repurpose Long-Form Content
Do you have robust ebooks, case studies and speeches that are too long for LinkedIn? No worries. It's easy to optimize your existing long-form blog content for LinkedIn Publisher.
Take your long-form blog posts or ebooks and break them down into multiple individual posts. Include additional images and subheads too. You can even take old speeches and write them as LinkedIn posts.
For example, Ann Handley (who does an excellent job of mixing new content and repurposed content into her LinkedIn Publisher posts) recently reimagined a speech published on her blog in 2013 for a LinkedIn Publisher post in 2015.
#3: Use Previous Content to Inspire New Posts
If you don't want to republish the same content (or even parts of it) from your blog, there are a few other options to avoid starting completely from scratch.
Take a look at the analytics from your published content to see which articles performed best. Look at traffic, social media shares and any other metrics you monitor for performance.
Then try to figure out what made that content so successful. One way to do this is to ask yourself questions about each post. Once you determine the source of that success, write a new article for LinkedIn that's similar.
You can also go through your blog and find articles with similar themes. Then pick the big ideas from each post and turn it into a list post on LinkedIn.
Include a summary paragraph or two from each post, as well as a link back to the original.
Tips for LinkedIn Publisher Engagement and Visibility
Whether you republish existing content verbatim or revise it, there are a few things to do to optimize it for LinkedIn.
OkDork analyzed 3,000 of the most successful LinkedIn Publishing posts to come up with these helpful takeaways:

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Thu Jul 02 03:00:34 PDT 2015

Are you looking for more ways to use LinkedIn for your business?
Have you considered showcase pages?
LinkedIn showcase pages enable you to promote certain products or services to specific customer segments.
In this article you'll discover how to use LinkedIn showcase pages for your business.
Listen to this article:
What Are Showcase Pages?
Showcase pages are an extension of your LinkedIn company page and allow you to highlight a particular product line or brand. Although you need to have a company page to create showcase pages, they're somewhat of a standalone feature. Each showcase page has its own followers, status updates and functionality, sort of like a mini LinkedIn company page.
Any showcase pages you've created for your business are listed in the right column of your company page. For example, IBM has a number of showcase pages, including IBM Cloud, IBM Analytics, IBM Security, IBM with MSPs, IBM Social Business and IBM Watson.
Here's how to set up showcase pages for your business's products and services.
#1: Choose a Page Name
First, you need to choose a page name. To take advantage of showcase pages for SEO, include your target SEO keywords as part of the page-naming process. For example, because I provide search engine optimization training, I claimed, created and optimized the showcase page with the same name: Search Engine Optimization Training.
The URL for the showcase page I claimed is http://www.linkedin.com/company/search-engine-optimization-training.
As you can see from the URL, showcase pages are not directly linked to your LinkedIn company page. The URL just says .../company/..., and only the name of the showcase page is included in the URL. This means no one else can claim a LinkedIn showcase page with that same name. It's sort of like registering and claiming a really cool .com URL and making it yours.
#2: Create a Showcase Page
To create a showcase page, log into your LinkedIn company page, hover or click on the down-pointing arrow next to Edit and select Create a Showcase Page from the drop-down menu.
You can claim up to 10 showcase pages for your company. If you need additional pages, reach out to LinkedIn’s support team and request them.
#3: Optimize the Page for Search
Without a doubt, Google loves LinkedIn company pages, and frequently ranks them high in search results if they're properly optimized. The same principle applies to showcase pages. The more followers you have and the more actively those followers engage with your showcase page, the better.
There are a number of ways you can optimize your showcase pages for search. You get more SEO juice by including target SEO keywords in the showcase page name (as described earlier) and in the description. You can use up to 200 characters to draft an engaging and compelling product or service description, so make good use of this real estate.
In the Website area of your page, make sure you include a link to the corresponding service or product page on your website.
Also add your logo and a header image to your showcase page. For the header image, you can upload an image in the PNG, JPEG or GIF format. The maximum file size for the image is 2MB, and it must be 974 x 330 pixels or larger.
Be sure to invite people to follow your showcase page and encourage them to engage with your posts. When you post status updates on the page, keep them focused and include your target SEO keywords.
Companies Using Showcase Pages
Here's a look at how three well-known companies use showcase pages to promote their products and services.
Adobe Creative Cloud
The Adobe Creative Cloud showcase page has more than 15,700 followers and features an excellent and relevant header image. The Adobe company page encourages visitors to follow all of their LinkedIn showcase pages.
Intel IT Center
The Intel IT Center showcase page, which has more than 47,200 followers,

by @ Social Media Marketing Podcast helps your business thrive with social media

Fri Jul 08 03:00:11 PDT 2016

Do you record videos with your smartphone?
Want to make them look really professional?
To talk about how to do video like a pro from your smartphone, I interview Justin Brown.
More About This Show
The Social Media Marketing podcast is an on-demand talk radio show from Social Media Examiner. It's designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.
In this episode, I interview Justin Brown, a video professional who specializes in helping marketers look great on camera. He's been a coach, producer, and cameraman for 25 years, specializing in extreme sports. You can find him at PrimalVideo.com.
Justin explores how to use your smartphone to create excellent recorded and live video.
You'll discover what tools you need to make your videos look professional.
Share your feedback, read the show notes, and get the links mentioned in this episode below.
Listen Now
You can also subscribe via iTunes, RSS, or Stitcher.
Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show:
Smartphone Video Excellence
Justin's story
When Justin was little, he recalls, his dad was always filming the family. As kids, they would grab the camera, make up mock TV shows, and watch them. His interest progressed and Justin eventually started editing video with the early versions of Windows Movie Maker and with Adobe Premiere.
Later in life, while Justin was a lifeguard at his local beach, he became heavily interested in motorboat racing. He began to create highlight videos from the footage of boats flipping, people falling out, and other exciting occurrences, and found that he enjoyed editing high-paced action video. From there, Justin pivoted into doing underground mine training videos.
Justin broke into extreme sports through an interview with professional big wave surfer Mark Visser. Justin ended up working closely with Mark and producing his documentary TV series: Justin filmed Mark surfing JAWS in Hawaii at 2 AM, solo skydiving, and throwing jet skis out of a plane to surf remote locations. It was full-on action sports video.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jfM1Vsl70k
Somewhere along the line, Justin found that he was more interested in teaching people to create their own video content, rather than shooting the video for them. The goal at Primal Video, which launched last year, is to help people get up to speed with video, allowing them to magnify their results by removing any barriers or excuses they have around creating videos for themselves.
Listen to the show to hear more about Justin's career transition.
Lighting
Justin says there are a few simple elements that will help you create a professional-looking video using your smartphone. Proper lighting, he says, will dramatically increase the quality and professionalism of your video, no matter the situation.
There are a couple options for lighting when capturing videos with your smartphone. One is to to use a rig mount with a light on it to illuminate your subject in the same way you would with a DSLR camera. Another option is to use a desk lamp or the lighting in your office or studio.
The key is to use whatever you have to light up the person presenting the content (maybe that's you); make sure that person is lit well, and if you have the time and the ability, you can also light up the background.
The goal is to have an even light across your entire face, so people can connect with you. Some shadow is good, because it creates depth on the face and you can see some details, but harsh shadows aren't ideal. If bright light is coming in through a window that's in your shot, do your best to reduce it by closing the curtains, shutting the doors, or lighting up the other side of your face to balance that light.
When you film with a smartphone, you typically have three scenarios: selfie-style with you holding the phone yourself, someone using their phone to film you,

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Mon Aug 03 03:00:30 PDT 2015

Do your Facebook ads get noticed?
Wondering how creating ads with Power Editor makes a difference?
When you build ads in Power Editor instead of the Facebook Ads Manager, you have more control over your creative elements.
In this article you'll learn how to use Power Editor to create Facebook ads that get results.
Listen to this article:
#1: Use More Characters in Headline and Text Areas
One of the big benefits of creating ads with Power Editor is that you get to use more text in ads for website clicks or website conversions. Typically, for those types of ads in the Ads Manager, you're limited to a headline of 25 characters and text of 90 characters. The only type of ad that allows longer text is boosted posts (also known as promoted posts).
Here's how you can create those same ads using Power Editor, and avoid the text limitations enforced by the Ads Manager.
Once you start your campaign, and then name the ad set and ad, you can start configuring the ad in Power Editor. You'll see the text limitations aren't showing.
Now you can use the ad text to tell a more complete story about your subject.
#2: Customize the Display URL Area
In Power Editor, you can customize your Display URL area. Think outside the box and use this area for an extra text message. Maybe add a message about your product or tell people when a deal will end.
This Display URL area is a great feature for when your URL is long and unwieldy. For example, if you use extra tracking in the website URL and you want to make sure people know where they're going, you can add the real website address in the Display URL field. Use it to show the main URL where you want clicks on your Facebook ad to go, rather than extra tracking information.
Want to reinforce your call to action? You can also use the Display URL area to highlight the Sign Up button.
#3: Tag Other Pages in Ads
Another benefit only available in Power Editor is the ability to tag other pages in the ad text. This makes the ad look more like a regular post, while potentially increasing its visibility.
As always when you tag other pages, make sure the tag is relevant and complementary to that page.
You can also tag pages if you do a standard page post and then boost it, or in an unpublished post (also in Power Editor). However, the benefit of doing a website clicks or website conversions post is that you can optimize for that goal and you get the call to action button.
To tag another page, just type the @ symbol followed by the page name into the Text box and then select it from the drop-down menu.
NOTE: No one outside of Facebook knows exactly how the news feed works, so it's not clear if tagging pages gives an ad any further reach. On the other hand, tagging in an organic post does increase your reach. And although you most likely have to pay for any reach you do receive through tagging, the ad may stand out more to the fans of those pages.
#4: Access Additional Ad Types
Two types of ads that are only available in Power Editor are dynamic product ads and carousel ads. There are some differences between the two types.
Dynamic Product Ads
Dynamic product ads use your whole catalog of products along with a user's browsing history to show more complex ads to him or her.
You use the Business Manager to upload your catalog as a .csv file. Facebook then uses the conversion pixel and a basic template to show different products (or even multiple products with the carousel ads) to each Facebook user.
Carousel Ads
Carousel ads are set up directly in Power Editor and can display up to five products. This involves more than simply selecting different images for your ad because each ad can be sent to a unique website where the product is displayed. Each ad also has its own description and headline.
For carousel ads, it's important to use 600 x 600 pixel images because the typical Facebook ad image size (120...

by Andy Crestodina @ Orbit Media Studios

Mon Jul 24 14:37:13 PDT 2017

As a digital marketer, you’ll often aim to contribute content to other blogs in an effort to increase your reach and influence. There are effective—and ineffective—ways to conduct your outreach. In this episode, we’ll explore blogger outreach do’s and dont’s.

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Mon Feb 01 02:00:52 PST 2016

Are you a busy social media marketer?
Looking for tools that will save you time?
Using the right tools to stay focused and work more efficiently will help you get more done in a day.
In this article you'll discover nine productivity tools for busy marketers.
Listen to this article:
#1: Save Content Inspiration for Later
Use Evernote to create a journal of content ideas and inspiration sources. With text, audio and image options, you can type, dictate or snap an image of whatever has caught your eye.
Evernote syncs with all of your devices, so you'll have access to it wherever you are. Reach for it when you're feeling stuck for content ideas.
#2: Block Distracting Websites
Throughout the course of a day, we have distractions coming at us from a variety of directions. If you intend to spend just a few minutes on Pinterest, only to end up spending half a day looking at recipes, you need Cold Turkey.
Use Cold Turkey to group distracting sites, such as social and news sites, and then block them off for certain time periods.
Remember, if you're a social media manager who uses native websites to schedule your messages, this probably isn't the app for you.
The app works great when you're putting off real work, like drafting your next blog post or newsletter or creating a report for your boss. Set it up for an hour or two and allow yourself some time to write distraction-free.
#3: Create Canned Email Responses
Do you get a lot of similar emails from customers, such as questions about your return policy or other support-related questions? Save yourself some time and effort with the Canned Responses add-on in Gmail. Rather than write a new response every time, you can save an email as a canned response and use it over and over again.
What's great about this feature is that it's not a simple auto-responder that feels robotic and soulless. You can edit canned responses to personalize them for a particular recipient or tailor your answer to a question.
To access it, go to your Gmail Inbox and click on the gear icon and select Settings. Then click on the Labs tab to find Canned Responses and select Enable.
Now you can save or access your canned responses in the lower-right corner of the New Message window.
#4: Secure Account Log In Credentials
Do you keep a list of all of your passwords for emails, websites, social media platforms and third-party apps and tools? Is that document really safe? What if you're on the go and can't remember your password for a site?
1Password is the solution for protecting your passwords and giving you quick access to them. The app will store your passwords securely, and autofill them whenever you need them. It's available for Mac, Windows, iOS and Android and as a browser extension.
#5: Automate Recurring Tasks
Think about all of the repetitive and mechanical tasks you do in the course of a day. Then delegate those tasks to IFTTT and free up your time to focus on bigger things.
You can choose from a huge list of social media recipes or create your own. Maybe you want to build a Twitter list for a specific hashtag or get an email notification when someone mentions your business in a tweet.
#6: Find and Attribute Images
Do you spend a lot of time looking for images online? Have you ever tried to hunt down one specific image? Whether you followed a dead end link or are looking for attribution information to credit an original source, TinEye can help. Use the TinEye browser extension to do a reverse image search and find the original source of any image.
#7: Create Tasks From Emails
We're all bombarded with emails asking us to do things and complete tasks. You're likely overwhelmed with the sheer volume of email you receive and the challenge of trying to stay on top of requests.
If you're using Gmail, you can create to-do items right from your email messages. After you open a message,

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Wed Jul 22 03:00:52 PDT 2015

Want to improve your Instagram marketing?
Are you interested in the latest tips and tools for Instagram?
Instagram is a fast-growing platform and businesses are eager to establish a presence and encourage engagement on the network.
We asked social media experts to share their hottest Instagram tips.
Here’s what they had to say.
Listen to this article:
#1: Shoot Square
Your Instagram feed is only as good as your photographs, so starting with high-quality photos makes your Instagram marketing more effective.
One of the best ways to save time and compose better photos for Instagram is to shoot square photos. Many digital cameras and smartphones have this in their settings so it’s really easy to do. This lets you save time on cropping and ensures that the essential elements in the photo won't be cropped out later.
Because shooting photos inside the Instagram app can be limiting, I like to use Camera Awesome by the SmugMug team on my iPhone (also available for Android users). Using this app, you can take fantastic photos using the grid to follow the rule of thirds.
Peg Fitzpatrick is a speaker, social media strategist and co-author of The Art of Social Media.
#2: Use a Customized Link Shortener to Track Traffic
One of the most important things marketers need to know is how well their Instagram account is driving traffic and leads back to their website. Unfortunately, Google Analytics can’t accurately track this traffic when users visit your website from your mobile Instagram account.
To monitor accurate click rates, I recommend businesses use a customized bit.ly link (or a link from another shortener) exclusively for the URL in their Instagram bio.
Then you can check your bit.ly data to document how many clicks your Instagram account is actually sending to your website.
Create a different bit.ly link each time you change the link for a new landing page, campaign or default page to continuously track successful traffic leads.
Jenn Herman is a social media trainer, blogger and Instagram advocate.
#3: Be Strategic With Your Bio Link
For personal use, Instagram is fun and spontaneous. But if you want to use it as a marketing tool, you have to be a little more calculating with it.
I suspect the businesses that are really killing it on Instagram (like Nordstrom, Starbucks, Nike and others) plan their posts well in advance.
If you’re a smaller brand or a one-man show, you can still develop a great presence on Instagram.
Use the link in your bio to connect to a landing page that holds the same posts you put on Instagram, and allows you to collect leads, promote your ecommerce site, gain subscribers to your blog, collect entries for a giveaway, etc.
Jim Belosic is the CEO of ShortStack.
#4: Cross-Promote Your Partners
Cross-promote whenever you can! The trend on Instagram now is to share the love, so to speak, by tagging others or even by outright promoting other companies, products and services.
Locally we have restaurants that serve beer from the many craft brewers in the area. Both the brewers and the restaurants take full advantage of Instagram by tagging each other. The brewers also support one another with tap takeovers, which are rich grounds for Instagram photos and tags.
The results are threefold: higher recognition for everyone involved, increased followers (who in turn tag the businesses during visits) and increased traffic and sales for the local businesses.
Lisa Karl is a partner and founder at Savvy Digital Business.
#5: Take Advantage of Trending Hashtags
Users can now use Instagram's Explore feature to find posts related to trending hashtags such as #LoveWins, #CanadaDay and #FullMoon.
If these trending tags are relevant to your brand, include them in timely posts to aid discovery.
On the topic of search, Instagram also introduced the ability to search by emoji.

by @ Social Media Marketing Podcast helps your business thrive with social media

Fri Mar 25 03:00:27 PDT 2016

Do you use Facebook ads?
Want to learn the latest strategies?
To discover what's changed with Facebook ads and how to get better results, I interview Rick Mulready.
More About This Show
The Social Media Marketing podcast is an on-demand talk radio show from Social Media Examiner. It's designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.
In this episode I interview Rick Mulready, the host of the Art of Paid Traffic podcast. He's a Facebook Ads coach and has numerous courses on Facebook advertising, including the FB ADvantage.
Rick will explore what's changed with Facebook ads and share new strategies that work.
You'll discover best practices for video ads, carousel ads, and more.
Share your feedback, read the show notes and get the links mentioned in this episode below.
Listen Now
You can also subscribe via iTunes, RSS, or Stitcher.
Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show:
Facebook Ads Strategy
Rick's story
Rick spent 12 years in the corporate online advertising space, working with big companies like AOL, Yahoo, Funny or Die, and Vibrant Media. He did everything from banner and video ads to search and text advertising. Rick got into Facebook ads around 2010, while still in the corporate world.
This was when Facebook was making a name for itself as a social platform, when small businesses could post on their pages and people would see it, and when Facebook started to allow business to advertise.
Rick loved Facebook advertising. He saw the power in it, and taught himself as much as he could. He started running campaigns for entrepreneur friends while still in corporate, and the rest is history. Rick left his job at the end of 2012 and has been specializing in Facebook ads ever since.
For the first couple of years, Rick focused on social media in general. He hosted the Inside Social Media podcast, where he interviewed the heads of social media from some of the biggest brands around the world. That was great, yet Rick still gravitated toward the Facebook ad side.
In January 2015, Rick started the Art of Paid Traffic podcast, where he covers Facebook advertising and everything else to do with paid traffic such as YouTube ads, copywriting, landing pages, metrics, analytics, and so on. It's a combination of case studies, interviews with experts, and solo shows.
Listen to the show to learn why only big businesses could really utilize Facebook ads in 2010.
How Facebook Ads has evolved
A lot has changed in Facebook advertising – such as targeting – over the past year or so, Rick says. For instance, you can upload your email list and create a targeted audience out of them. Also, you can retarget people coming to your website or a landing page.
When most people think of targeting, they think of interest targeting, which is targeting fans of another page or somebody in their space. Facebook has recently rolled out detailed targeting. Before, if you wanted to target fans of Social Media Examiner or Entrepreneur Magazine, you could only do one or the other. Now, you can set up ads to target people who have an interest in Social Media Examiner and Entrepreneur Magazine.
To take it a step further, you can exclude an audience. For instance, target fans of Social Media Examiner and Entrepreneur magazine, but exclude people who like Inc. Magazine. It's a much more detailed subset of that audience.
When Facebook reported its Q4 earnings, they basically said their customer is not the advertiser. While they're making money off of advertising, their customers are the 1.5 billion Facebook users. Facebook recognizes that without these users, they won't have people coming to advertise on the platform. Therefore, Facebook is protecting the user experience. They want to make sure advertisers think of value first to take care of Facebook users.
While you can still run an ad to an opt-in or registration page,

by @ Social Media Marketing Podcast helps your business thrive with social media

Fri Aug 07 03:00:04 PDT 2015

Do you consider yourself a thought leader?
Want to know what it takes to become a guest on a major podcast or a speaker at large events?
In this episode I go behind the scenes at Social Media Examiner with Phil Mershon.
More About This Show
The Social Media Marketing podcast is an on-demand talk radio show from Social Media Examiner. It's designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.
In this episode I interview Phil Mershon, director of events at Social Media Examiner. This show is the official third anniversary of the Social Media Marketing podcast.
Phil and I will explore how we pick the thought leaders in our industry for our conferences and podcast.
You'll discover how to become a thought leader in any industry.
Share your feedback, read the show notes and get the links mentioned in this episode below.
Listen Now
You can also subscribe via iTunes, RSS, or Stitcher. How to subscribe on iPhone.
Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show:
Thought Leadership
What thought leadership means
Phil talks about the two parts that go into being a thought leader. First, there's the "thought" element. It starts with people who have excellent forward thinking, stay on the cutting edge and push boundaries, understand deeply how things work and are able to articulate it.
And second, they must be a "leader," someone whom others listen to and follow. A thought leader does those things over time, consistently producing material that people will listen to month in and month out.
Before I started Social Media Examiner, I was called one of the leading authorities in the white paper world. To earn that, I constantly wrote articles, started a blog, did training, wrote a book, summarized industry research and had a monthly newsletter.
Establishing yourself as a thought leader is a lot of work. Even harder is maintaining it. Mari Smith is an excellent example of someone who chose to own her title of "Facebook Expert," and is having great results.
Listen to the show to discover how long Phil and I have been working together and what we did before Social Media Examiner.
How we decide who should be on the podcast and on our stages
When deciding on our content, we ask two questions: "What should people speak about?" and "Who should speak about those subjects?"
To determine what people will speak about, we look very carefully at the data, Phil explains. We study our annual Social Media Marketing Industry Report, which is based on the subjects our readers tell us they do and do not care about. It influences decisions about the kinds of speakers we need to find, which sometimes means we need to seek out experts we don't know yet.
If you want to pitch yourself to a conference or podcast, it's important to first study it. Look at the organization's typical lineup to see what kinds of things people are speaking about, and determine if you're a fit.
Not every thought leader is appropriate for every situation. We get inquires all the time from people who pitch us things that aren't appropriate.
Listen to the show to hear how booking speakers is like programming for television.
What we look for in our speakers
Phil and I share the four criteria we look for in a speaker.
1. Are they a great communicator?
We're not just looking for inspirational communicators, we are looking for people who can explain or teach at a very deep level how to use the different social media platforms.
A lot of people think they're great communicators, but a lot of people also think they're good drivers. I share how when Sally Hogshead was keynoting at Social Media Marketing World, she said "Raise your hand if you think you are a good driver." About 95% of the hands went up in the room. Then she says, "Interestingly enough, research shows that only 55% of people are good drivers, so that means that about 40% of you are kidding your...

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Mon Sep 28 03:00:07 PDT 2015

Do you manage at least one Facebook business page?
Are you using all the admin features?
Facebook pages include many tools to help marketers and business owners get the most out of their business presence.
In this article I'll share how to use Facebook's features, tools and settings to manage your business page effectively.
Listen to this article:
#1: Access Your Facebook Pages
There are a few ways to access your Facebook pages. To see all of the pages you are linked to as an administrator, editor, moderator, advertiser or analyst, go to your Pages bookmarks. From there, click on the link to the page you want.
To use your Facebook page to like other Facebook pages or comment on posts, click to log in as your page. Plus, select the settings wheel icon to add specific pages to your favorites in the left sidebar of your Facebook screen.
Alternatively, access your pages using the drop-down arrow in the menu at the top of your Facebook screen.
#2: Navigate Your Page Menu
At the top of your Facebook page, there's a menu to direct you to the main features of your page. You should see this menu when logged in as your personal profile or as your page.
The first item in the menu, Page, will take you back to your Facebook page from your Messages, Notifications, Insights, Publishing Tools and Settings.
Here are the rest of the features.
Engage With Users Privately Through Messages
If you'd like, enable Messages in your General page settings. This will allow Facebook users to send private messages to your page.
Note: You can only reply to messages your page has received. You cannot send messages (as your page) to people who have not messaged you.
A great feature in Messages is saved replies. Create a template for common responses you can easily personalize to send through your page's private messaging. Click on any of your messages create a new reply.
Check Notifications for Recent Engagement
Notifications give you a quick summary of people who have engaged with your page, as well as their interaction.
If someone asks for your contact information using a prompt on your Facebook page, like the one shown below, you'll find it in Requests under the Notifications section.
See a full timeline of activity related to your page, including when other people or pages mention your page and when others share your page's posts, under the Notifications section in Activity.
Review Your Analytics With Insights
Insights are your Facebook page's analytics. This is where you'll learn more about your fan page audience growth and engagement.
Insights show you which page posts get the most engagement, and whether your fans match your ideal customer base (age ranges, gender and location). Plus, learn how people discover your page by clicking the Visits tab.
Schedule and Publish Posts Through Publishing Tools
The Publishing Tools feature lets you create Facebook updates to be published immediately, schedule posts to be published at a future time and draft posts to save for later.
To publish a status, photo, video, offer, event or milestone immediately, go to the Published Posts section and click the Create button at the top right.
To schedule a status, photo or video post, go to the Scheduled Posts section and click the Create button at the top right. Use the drop-down next to the Publish button to get schedule, backdate or draft options.
Be sure to review your analytics on the Published Posts tab as well. Search by keyword for specific updates to see their statistics. In addition to reach, it includes the name of the application used to publish the post to your page.
Use this data to see which posts have the most engagement, and determine if posts shared through your page have more reach than those shared through third-party tools.
#3: Configure Page Settings
Your page's settings allow you to control everything from visibi...

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Mon Jul 27 03:00:23 PDT 2015

Are you interested in Google+ marketing?
Wondering where the platform is headed?
Despite a number of detractors, Google+ has a number of fans and supporters who say Google+ has grown into a platform that wins them business.
In this article you'll discover findings from recent studies focused on the current Google+ activity as well as speculation about what Google plans to do with the network.
Google+ in Recent History
When Google+ first launched, bloggers warned Facebook to watch its rearview mirror for the new, hyper-capitalized social channel. By all accounts, Google leadership designed Google+ as a social media platform, a direct competitor to Facebook.
At first, the hype didn't seem hyped enough. Just two weeks after its June 2011 launch, Google+ hit 10 million users. By the end of the year, 90 million users had Google+ accounts.
Listen to this article:
Compare that surge to Facebook, which took three and a half years to reach 90 million users, and Twitter, which took a little under three years. While it's clear that these two older platforms primed the market for a Google+ launch years later, six months to get that many users is still a rocket-ship trajectory.
Google had two more distinct advantages. First, it forced users to sign up for a Google+ account if they wanted to easily use services like YouTube, Photos and Drive. In addition, the year Google+ launched, Google CEO Larry Page tied 25% of all employee bonuses to its success. With a motivated salesforce of 30,000+, you bet word spread.
Fast-forward four years to 2015, and we see headlines like Google+ Is Walking Dead, Goodbye Google+, I Wish I Never Knew You, Why Google Is Finally Putting Google+ Out of Its Misery… and a myriad of other posts using words like doomed and ghost town.
Digital marketers went back and forth for years about Google+'s ability to attract meaningful activity. Internet marketer Ryan Hanley wrote over a dozen enthusiastic posts about Google+, including this one gushing about the platform’s business pages. In 2015 he published How Perception Became Reality and I Had to Break up with Google+.
Hanley makes a credible case here about why he and many other digital marketers had bet that Google+ would be successful:
"For what it's worth, I believe the Google+ format is most evolved of all the social networks. First to include streaming video. First to include in-stream GIFs. First to include hovercard functionality. First to include post formatting. First to include varied image sizes."
Despite these perks, the return on investment just didn't hold up for Hanley and many others. In the comments on this article, Hanley reveals that he will redirect his time into creating content on his own properties while dialing down time and energy spent on all social media platforms.
#1: Google+: Ghost Town or Bustling Suburb?
While digital pundits hurl their Google+ prognostications at each other, marketers tread cautiously about where to put their time and dollars. Several robust studies of Google+'s audience, engagement and trajectory provide a snapshot of where Google+ really is right now.
International web research company GlobalWebIndex surveyed 83,806 individuals, Internet users ranging in age from 16 to 64, from countries around the world (except China whose policies make it difficult).
While 60% of those surveyed claim they have a Google+ profile, only 21% of Internet users self-identify as active users.
One may think that the figure of 60% of all Internet users with a Google+ profile should be respected. There are 2.2 billion total Google+ profiles, after all. Even 21% of all Internet users could translate into access to large populations.
The problem is that while the other social media channels may have fewer members, these members visit, post and engage at a much higher rate. GlobalWebIndex's numbers indicate that despite the above-mentioned Google+ advantages,

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Tue Jan 19 02:00:15 PST 2016

Ever want to take a day off from posting on social media?
Have you considered scheduling posts for weekends and holidays, or when you just can’t respond?
Posting to Facebook and Twitter when many businesses are silent helps you stay top of mind with your followers.
In this article you'll discover how to keep your social media accounts stocked with content when you’re on break.
Why Post on Weekends?
Some non-workdays are perfect times to be active on social media for certain types of businesses (think special offers for ecommerce sites during the holidays, for example). Simply greeting your followers on a holiday is a great way to build genuine likes and interactions.
Listen to this article:
Contrary to popular belief, social media posting on weekends is essential for your brand presence growth. The following studies show Saturday and Sunday posts can increase your interactions:
Weekend posts on Facebook get more engagement than workweek posts.
Weekend and Wednesday tweets are believed to be the best days for B2C companies.
Weekend and afternoon tweets show the highest click-through rates.
While posting on weekends and holidays can make sense for your business, the desire to take a well-deserved day off is understandable. Read on for some tips to keep your accounts active on those days.
#1: Schedule Content Effectively
If you'll be taking a weekend or holiday vacation, scheduling some updates for that time is a smart strategy.
I recommend that you schedule updates with a tool like MavSocial because it's free and supports top social media networks. You can use the Post Manager feature to schedule your social media updates and check the Campaign Planner calendar to make sure you post each day of your vacation.
Don't overschedule for holidays (especially if you are into ecommerce). Holidays can be risky: Customers wait longer for orders, and customer service is swamped. Downtime also tends to happen on holidays because hosting companies are understaffed. So it's not the best time for multiple social media updates. One timely update congratulating customers on the holidays is enough.
Don't overschedule for time slots you won't be available to interact; one or two updates per day will be enough to maintain a consistent presence.
I suggest a daily schedule like the one below for weekends or holiday absences:
Schedule one Facebook page post: The purpose of this update is mostly to generate organic interactions rather than to convert, so post something entertaining and timely like a meme on a trending topic. You can also consider a post that acknowledges the holiday, a funny weekend picture or video, a joke or a visual quote.
Schedule two to three tweets: Avoid asking questions, posting mini-contests or publishing tweets that may prompt questions or interactions you'll need to quickly react to. Instead, use this time to re-share important updates from the weekdays such as a special offer or an upcoming event reminder.
#2: Tools to Improve Your Weekend Posting
Although consistency is important to your success in social media marketing, so is including variety in what you share.
Select an image from the MavSocial gallery to diversify your weekend and holiday social media updates on Twitter and Facebook. Unlike many other scheduling tools out there, the MavSocial Post Manager feature actually uploads your visual content to each network.
To scale your entertaining content on Twitter for holidays, weekends or vacation time, use Tweet Jukebox to auto-post from a cool pre-built box you fill. I have a box of interesting quotes I use only for weekends. Simply register a free account and enable the box from My Jukeboxes.
Sometimes updating your social media accounts in real time is unavoidable, which is why I like the idea of DrumUp so much. DrumUp has a great free mobile app for Android that you can use to make this process easier from your smartphone.

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Wed May 11 03:00:55 PDT 2016

Is the Pinterest algorithm burying your pins?
Looking for tips to get better exposure in the Pinterest Smart Feed?
Pinning more isn't always the answer to increasing your visibility on Pinterest.
In this article you'll discover four ways to improve the quality of your pins and boards on Pinterest.
Listen to this article:
#1: Clean Up Your Account Every Month
For Pinterest's algorithm to view your account as high-quality, you'll want to focus on curating the best of the best. In turn, Pinterest will be more likely to recommend your pins to others.
Not all popular pins are created equal and many of your account's pins won't get substantial repins from your followers. To make sure your account is up to date, set aside time once a month to go through your boards and delete all of the pins that have fewer than five repins.
Here's an easy way to delete underperforming pins from a board:
Click on the board and then click on the Move Pins button at the top right corner of the board. Next, click on the red Move button. Now you're able to scroll down and view all of the pins on your board and note the number of repins each one has generated.
Select the checkmark on each pin that has fewer than five repins. When you're done, click the red Delete button. Currently you can delete only 50 pins at a time, and be careful to stay below 100 daily pin deletions or Pinterest may block you. You should also wait at least seven days before you delete a new pin.
Deleting pins is a lot of work, but if you want to build a valuable Pinterest presence, it's a tactic you can't ignore.
#2: Pin and Repin Based on Popularity
It's very tempting to repin every amazing image, but if you pin indiscriminately, you'll end up with a collection of great images that offer little value to your audience. To curate a popular account with boards that give value to your followers, look a bit further to see how many repins each image actually has before you share it to one of your own boards.
Joy Cho / Oh Joy! has an impressive 12.8M followers on Pinterest, and her account is a great example of what happens when you only repin popular pins to your account.
Pro tip: It's good practice to check the link of each image before you repin to make sure you're not directing people to a broken link or dodgy website.
Check your Pinterest stats to see which of your boards are most popular. This information isn't limited only to your owned boards, but also extends to any group boards you pin to.
When you want to share a new original pin from your website or blog, pin it to one of your popular boards and make sure the pin is related to the theme of the board you choose.
#3: Combine Pinterest Analytics With Google Analytics to Identify Traffic-Driving Pins
It's important to have your website verified on Pinterest. Not only does this reinforce your credibility, but it also allows you to view your website stats. This makes it possible to see which of your original pins from your website or blog are the most popular on Pinterest.
You'll want to cross-check this information with Google Analytics and use the combined stats to verify which of your popular pins are driving traffic to your website.
To find out, sign into your Google Analytics account and then go to Acquisition > Referrals > Pinterest. Look at the Visits column to detect high-performing pins. Create similar pins to deliver more of what your audience likes, which will improve your pinning strategy.
#4: Adjust Board Elements for Visibility in Search
If you have a board that isn't getting the visibility you expect or isn't generating the repins you want, you can change your board title to see if the board's performance improves.
First, click on the board you want to change and then click on the Edit Board button.
Next, you'll see an edit screen where you can change a number of elements for your board, such as the name (or title), description,

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Thu Jan 07 03:00:49 PST 2016

Do you want to improve your social media marketing?
Have you looked at how your competitors are using social?
There are tools to help you determine what's working for you and your competitors, what isn't working and why.
In this article you'll discover four free tools to compare your social media presence with your competitors'.
Listen to this article:
#1: Do a Side-by-Side Comparison
Fanpage Karma will analyze your and your competitors' accounts across Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Instagram, YouTube and Pinterest. However, its most robust and useful features fall within the Facebook realm.
The free plan offers a detailed, 90-day analysis for one page and a comparative dashboard for any number of competitors. The free plan will also send you weekly reports and alerts if you so choose.
The free comparative analytics cover engagement, growth, most-used content sources and keywords, top posts, frequency, engagement by day and time, post type and supporters, among other metrics.
The detailed analytics tack on keyword and content source engagement (via a color-coded word cloud), post length, success by post type, influencers, post history and more.
You have to use the premium version to access analytics for other social networks, or for more robust analytics and exportable Excel and PowerPoint reports. These plans start at around $75 per month.
The interface is unique in that it instantly displays comparative charts and graphs, allowing you to quickly and visually assess your page's strengths and weaknesses. Then dig deeper into the content types, timing and keyword tools to understand the why behind the data, and adjust your strategy accordingly.
#2: Assess Facebook Page Performance
LikeAlyzer will do a quick health check of any Facebook page. The tool is commonly used for competitive research because it doesn't require access to Facebook Insights to do its magic, and the features are uniform across pages.
Though it doesn't present a side-by-side comparison like Fanpage Karma, the data is presented in a friendly enough way that you can easily take screenshots and import multiple analyses into a document for a competitive comparison.
LikeAlyzer uses its own scoring system to assign each page an overall rank between 1 and 100, as well as averages within industry and similar brands. It will also give you metrics including likes, growth, engagement rate and PTAT (People Talking About This). Each of these metrics is accompanied by a green check mark or a red X, indicating whether the metric is strong or subpar.
Additionally, the tool will check on different elements of your page by measuring responsiveness, timing, post type and page information (using the same check mark and X system). It also provides suggestions to improve the health of your page, such as what types of content you should focus on and when to post to get the strongest engagement.
LikeAlyzer is excellent when you want to perform a quick check on your page, but you'll get the most benefit from it if you use it to analyze multiple competitors. Pay close attention to suggestions the tool spits out for other pages to determine where your brand can step up and take the lead.
#3: Identify Influencers
Klear, formerly Twtrland, serves as both an influencer-identification platform and an analytics dashboard. Search for influencers by skill and/or location and Klear will generate 10 influencers in multiple categories (celebrities, power users, casual, etc.). Upgrade to a pro account to see more results, starting at $249/month.
You can view anyone's analytics profile by searching for his or her name or visiting http://klear.com/profile/USERNAME. This powerful dashboard will generate the account's top content on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram (if you manually add it). You can also see activity and responsiveness levels as well as a list of people the account most frequently interacts with.

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Tue Aug 18 03:00:26 PDT 2015

Do you want more exposure for your Twitter account?
Have you thought about applying SEO tactics to your Twitter marketing?
With a few simple techniques, you can increase the chances that your Twitter account shows up in both Twitter and Google search.
In this article you'll discover how to improve the visibility of your Twitter account with SEO.
Listen to this article:
Start With Relevant Keywords
Keywords that you're already using in the metadata of your website are a good place to start. Your website keywords might not translate perfectly to Twitter, but if you combine them with popular hashtags and topics that work well in your content, you'll have a good group to test.
You'll know which keywords are working best by monitoring your engagement, link clicks and reach. Any spikes in those metrics will show you which tweets have effective keywords in them. Then you can use those keywords more in your tweets and profile.
You can also expand your keyword list by including the names of events that your company is always involved with. Make the list as big as you like as long as every word is relevant to your brand. Most importantly, keep this list updated.
With your keywords in hand, here are some ways to boost your visibility for both Twitter and Google search.
#1: Optimize Your Account for Twitter Search
Tweets get the main stage on Google right now, but optimizing your account for search on Twitter will allow you to have long-term searchability.
Handle and Username
Make sure your handle and username match your website and brand name. Consistent branding across all of your channels is your best bet for being found by the audience you want. Your handle and username don't have to match each other, but they should be related.
Your handle is also included in your unique Twitter URL (for example, https://twitter.com/SMExaminer). Your username shows up next to your profile photo for all of your tweets.
You can change your username easily. But changing your handle is trickier, and you'll lose your verification badge if you have one. Changing your username or handle may also confuse your followers and cause people to unfollow you. If you're going to change either one, try to do it only once.
Don't use a lot of numbers in your username either because Google may flag it as spam.
Bio, Photo and Link
Your bio, photo and link are the places to make changes and updates to promote campaigns or events. Twitter indexes your bio regularly, so any changes affect your relevancy score in search. You can use up to 160 characters in your bio section, so make the most of them.
The bio's main purpose is to explain to potential followers what you usually tweet about and why they should follow you. Update your bio regularly to match the type of content you're currently tweeting about.
If you have a campaign or event you're involved with, make sure you include relevant keywords and hashtags in your bio. This will help you show up more on both Twitter and Google when people search for those keywords and hashtags.
The profile photo also has some SEO weight. Before you upload the photo, add relevant keywords, separated by dashes, to the filename of your photo (for example, social-media-examiner.jpeg). This won't make you shoot to the top of results on its own, but SEO tactics are most successful when the different pieces are working together. Also make sure your photo is exactly 200 x 200 pixels for optimal loading speed.
Your link is the biggest call to action for your Twitter account. Many brands shorten their URL to make it more trackable and user-friendly. If you want to shorten your URL, get a branded link shortener because some link shorteners can be flagged as spam.
Also think carefully about which page your bio link is sending your Twitter followers to. The safest option is to use the main page of your brand's website because it usually has the best SEO authority.

by Kelley Schultz @ DialogTech

Thu Aug 24 07:51:11 PDT 2017

In typical Google fashion, there have been a multitude of recent changes to how ads appear in the search engine results page (SERP). At the beginning of this year, I wrote a blog post about the big enhancements Google made in 2016. Two of those enhancements, specifically expanded text ads and the removal of right rail ads, were focused on […]

This is a TRUE & SUCCESSFUL story from the SEO strategist Jason Acidre – Co-founder at Xight Interactive, written and documented by himself. From position #12 to position #5 in under 30 days. It’s definitely a huge thing, especially for consultants and site owners who are looking to get even more productive in the […]

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Tue Jul 21 03:00:21 PDT 2015

Do you use Twitter to market your business?
Have you thought about hosting chats?
Twitter chats are a great way to connect with customers and prospects, build authority and gain exposure for your business.
In this article you'll discover how to prepare, promote and host a Twitter chat.
Listen to this article:
#1: Define the Objective
Always start by defining the objective of your Twitter chat. Find a topic that will appeal to your target audience.
The chat needs to provide value to your audience to be successful. Don't make it just about your company; tailor it to how you can help your community. For example, if you're in the photography industry, invite guests to discuss photo editing tips, black-and-white photography, photography inspiration, etc.
An added benefit is that you can repurpose all of the chat contributions into a future blog post. Those who participated in the chat will appreciate having a summary of it, and readers who missed it will enjoy the insight.
#2: Identify Similar Chats
Once you've established an objective for your chat, find at least five Twitter chats similar to yours to gather ideas. You can find Twitter chats with tools like TweetReports and Gnosisarts.
Learn how these chats work. Observe how the host controls the flow of conversation and directs topics. Also find out which guests are invited, how many questions are posed, what times the chats are held and how they're promoted.
Be sure to participate as well. Answer questions and engage with others. This allows you to build your expertise and gives you insight into what it's like to participate in a Twitter chat.
#3: Set the Date and Time
Choosing the date and time for your chat is important. Typically the best times to hold Twitter chats are between the hours of 6 pm ET and 10 pm ET.
However, avoid scheduling your chat at a time that would clash with other popular chats. Write down the times that you won't be able to hold a chat. Next, list the scheduled times for the five Twitter chats that you followed earlier. Then search for a time slot that won't clash with them.
#4: Choose a Hashtag
Now comes the fun part: naming your Twitter chat. Typically every chat hashtag ends with "chat" (for example, #mediachat, #influencerchat and #blogchat). Adding the word "chat" signals to people that it's a Twitter chat instead of a regular hashtag or an event.
When choosing a hashtag, make sure it fits your brand. Also, check that it's not a Twitter username and hasn't been used as a hashtag previously.
Brainstorm at least 15 chat names and then pick the best one. You might want to seek input from your co-workers.
After you select a hashtag, make sure that you register the Twitter username. You can use this account to hold your chats.
#5: Invite Guests
Next, make a list of at least 20 guests you want to invite.
Start securing guests at least two weeks prior to your chat. If it's your first Twitter chat, make sure you have a commitment from at least four guests a month in advance. Guests are often busy, so you need to secure them in advance.
Ideally, you want someone who has experience being a guest and is interested in holding Twitter chats. If you have an influential user who loves your company, consider inviting that person to be a guest, too.
#6: Prepare Questions
Once you have everything in place and have secured at least four guests in advance, start preparing questions. You'll need about 7 to 10 questions for your guests. Send these questions to them at least 72 hours prior to the chat so they can prepare their responses.
During the chat, spread out the questions about 6 to 8 minutes apart. Ask your last question about 10 minutes before the end of the chat to allow time for the community to discuss it.
#7: Promote the Chat
The key to making your Twitter chat stand out is to promote it. Here are some ways to do that:
Partner With Other Chats

by Govind Agarwal @ SubmitedgeSEO

Thu Jan 19 19:55:13 PST 2017

It was the year 2015 when Google first hit us with its mobile-friendly algorithm update. The next came in 2016 where mobile compatible sites became a bit more favorable while ranking in organic results. The next one was on air … Continue reading →

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Wed Jun 10 03:00:41 PDT 2015

Do you use video on your social channels?
Looking for ways to connect with your audience?
Telling stories with video increases engagement, triggers social sharing and gives people a reason to talk about you online and offline.
In this article I'll highlight eight ways to combine storytelling, video and social media.
Listen to this article:
#1: Post Stories From Your Customers
On Airbnb's Facebook page, the company posts video stories about places around the world, as told by Airbnb hosts. This is a great way to produce engaging and interesting content, and create an emotional connection between your customers and prospects and your company.
Post video stories from your customers to create a personal connection with other viewers.
#2: Create a Fictional Series
Creating a fictional video series is another way to integrate your brand with a story that entertains your audience.
Kate Spade New York created a video series called #missadventure, which it hosts on Facebook, Instagram and on its own website. The series, which stars actress Anna Kendrick, combines the company's products with an engaging storyline that follows the character's misadventures in and around a ritzy hotel. And of course, her handbags and accessories are from Kate Spade.
Create a fictional series to promote your brand while you entertain your audience at the same time.
You don't have to hire a professional actor to produce a fictional video series, but decent acting and a compelling story definitely go a long way.
#3: Tell Personal Stories
Gary Vaynerchuk is known for stories and video from his Wine Library TV days, and he's always innovating in the online video space (including his recent experiments with Meerkat).
On Facebook, he regularly posts videos that include personal stories as a way to connect with his audience. His videos motivate viewers and teach important, hard-won lessons about entrepreneurship and marketing.
#4: Shoot Documentary-Style Video
Another way to tell stories with video is to shoot in a documentary style. This can be a short documentary video or a series of true stories about something that would interest your audience.
Chipotle created a documentary-style video series around Major League Soccer, featuring Harry Shipp of the Chicago Fire.
Shoot a documentary-style video to tell a story that will interest your viewers.
Documentary-style video can be very intriguing, and it doesn't have to involve a star. It can feature anyone who is involved in something of interest to your audience.
#5: Interview Guests
An interview or video podcast is a great way to draw out stories from industry thought leaders, customers or partners. Michael Hyatt posts portions of his video podcast interviews on his Facebook page as teasers.
Video interviews don't require a big budget. Just make sure you have good questions and an engaging guest.
#6: Take Viewers Behind the Scenes
People love to see "how the sausage is made." Behind-the-scenes videos work for businesses that sell services (for example, show how your company creates a social media strategy) and products (see the example below).
Ed Sbragia, an internationally recognized winemaker, tells the story of a wine set in the barrel room. The video is short and inexpensively made, but this is the kind of content that engages viewers.
If you're interested in giving viewers a peek at your business, look for natural storytellers on your team who can get in front of the camera and tell stories.
#7: Create Animated Stories
Another option for social videos is to develop an animated story, similar to what Chipotle has been doing with its video series Back to the Start and The Scarecrow.
You could hire a video production company that specializes in animation, but there are also a number of tools you can use to create animated videos, including GoAnimate, Powtoon and MakeWebVideo.
Tell a compelling story through animation.

by Guy Sheetrit @ Over The Top SEO

Fri Jun 09 07:44:07 PDT 2017

Duplicate Content Affect Rankings! Duplicate content is the same or partly the same content on a few URLs. Such pages can lead to wasting crawl budget, and significant rankings drop as a result. You might think that it’s definitely not about your site but don’t jump to conclusions. It this article, I’ll tell you where […]

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Tue Mar 01 02:00:53 PST 2016

Are you marketing on YouTube?
Could you use some new ideas to improve your YouTube results?
Perhaps you should reconsider your YouTube approach.
In this article you'll discover four tips to make your YouTube marketing more effective.
Listen to this article:
#1: Pique Curiosity With Unconventional Video
People aren't going to click on your video to see a boring infomercial. They may be willing to tolerate a dry tutorial if it offers unique advice that they won't find elsewhere. The most successful YouTube videos, though, tell an original and interesting story. This ad from Android is a good example.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnVuqfXohxc&feature=youtu.be
It may be easier to come up with great content ideas if you don't limit yourself to videos that relate directly to your product or business. This is particularly important if you're in an industry that's hard to get people excited about (such as asphalt contracting).
Consider this video of a young girl dancing, which was used to promote the Samsung Galaxy 580 phone. The video is seemingly unrelated to the product, yet still reflects positively on the company.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lK7IzfLmyco
The video conveys the excitement that Samsung wants its customers to feel about its phone. It helps set the mood for people to take the next step, which is to visit the URL at the end to learn more about the product. Your goal is to keep viewers engaged long enough to soften them up for your call to action.
Don't go overboard with this type of content, though. You've probably seen some commercials and had no idea what the message was until the very end, which left you confused about the company. Make sure that your videos evoke the emotions you want customers to feel about your company, even if there isn't a direct connection between your video content and the product you're ultimately promoting.
#2: Support Customer Research With Keywords
When marketing on YouTube, it's important to recognize and consider your audience's stage in the buying process. Some marketers try to cold-sell to customers and prospects who might be interested in their products. The problem is that people who find your videos on YouTube are usually in the discovery stage and aren't ready to commit to a purchase.
For this reason, it's important to choose keywords that are relevant to people who are looking for new information and to provide video content that educates based on those keywords. You can use the AdWords Display Planner tool to research keywords for your video descriptions and ad targeting.
What types of keywords should you look for? Consider words and phrases that are relevant to both your industry and products. For example, if you have a car repair shop, you could target keywords such as "how to change oil" and "auto mechanic."
Testing Keyword Performance in YouTube Ads
Your keywords need to receive enough exposure for you to properly test them. Choose keywords with at least 1,000 monthly impressions, and you should be able to gather enough data to gauge their effectiveness.
During the initial keyword testing phase, you want to collect data on the performance of keywords in your ads in a cost-effective way. Some of the keywords you're bidding on may generate more volume than you expect, especially if you're bidding competitively.
YouTube is a massive site, so it's easy to quickly blow your ad budget, especially if you choose high-volume targeting options. Unless you're working with a big budget to start with, set your budget low enough to ensure you don't spend too much on a single keyword target. You can always raise your budget after you've had a chance to optimize your campaign and know which keywords offer the best ROI.
#3: Qualify Leads With YouTube Video
The goal of your video should be to prequalify viewers and send fully interested prospects on to your website to learn more about your products and services.

by @ Social Media Marketing Podcast helps your business thrive with social media

Fri Oct 17 03:00:56 PDT 2014

Do you use Facebook to promote your business?
Are you curious how to respond to the recent changes to the Facebook news feed?
To learn how to navigate these important changes to Facebook's news feed, I interview Mari Smith, the "Queen of Facebook."
More About This Show
The Social Media Marketing podcast is an on-demand talk radio show from Social Media Examiner. It's designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.
In this episode, I interview Mari Smith, who is the world's leading Facebook marketing authority. She's authored the books, The New Relationship Marketing and Facebook Marketing: An Hour a Day. This is her fourth appearance on the show!
Mari explores what you need to know about marketing with Facebook, and in particular the news feed.
You'll discover the importance of native links, why micro-video should be key to your Facebook posting strategy and how Atlas will change the way you do online advertising. Share your feedback, read the show notes and get the links mentioned in this episode below!
Listen Now
You can also subscribe via iTunes, RSS, or Stitcher.
Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show:
Facebook News Feed
What marketers need to think about this next year when it comes to Facebook marketing
Mari shares that over the next year, marketers will have to embrace the idea of paid amplified posts.
According to Mari, most businesses on Facebook will have to bite the bullet and allocate dollars to paid posts this coming year.
Mari shares that another Facebook trend is the push for micro-video and user-generated content. You'll hear more about this in the show.
The next big consideration is connecting with your mobile users. With 75% of Facebook users accessing the site from mobile devices, your content must be effective on a mobile feed and able to direct people to a mobile-friendly landing page.
Listen to the show to find out why community managers are more important than ever to your Facebook marketing strategy.
Review your posting strategy
With Facebook clearly giving preferential visibility to consumers rather than brands, marketers now have to rethink their posting strategy. Especially with all of the latest updates to the news feed.
Mari explains that some of the changes have been around links, and as marketers we are all about the images.
In the past we have been told that posts with photos get the best visibility in the news feed. Mari explains that marketers have tried all kinds of clever ways to circumvent the news feed ranking algorithm. When you wanted to include a link in your post, you could use an image and include the link in the description.
Now what Facebook calls native link posts give you a bigger image preview on your posts. You type or paste a link into your publisher on your page or profile, and it automatically generates a preview with a large image.
You'll hear the huge advantages of this type of post, and why you need to consider it for your posting strategy.
Listen to the show to find out why Mari recommends you change up your posting strategy to integrate more links.
How Facebook's Save feature works and its advantages
At the end of July 2014, Facebook introduced a new Save feature, which lets you to save items found on Facebook to check out later when you have more time.
Available on both mobile and desktop, the Save feature was initially only meant for native link posts, but Facebook quietly upgraded it to allow any post with a link, video, photo or status update to be saved. Even if a post has multiple links in it, you can save all of the links at once with this tool.
Mari recommends that you remind your fans from time to time of how to save and retrieve their saved items. Although publishers don't have access to the metrics right now, Mari's educated guess is that this feature might ultimately have value and give priority...

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Tue Jul 28 03:00:38 PDT 2015

Do you struggle to keep up with your Twitter activities?
Interested in tools to improve productivity?
Managing your Twitter account doesn't have to consume all your time. There are tools that can make the work easier.
In this article you'll discover five Twitter tools to boost your productivity.
Listen to this article:
#1: Schedule Content via Tweet Jukebox
Tweet Jukebox is a free scheduling tool that allows you to load a "jukebox" with content, schedule when you want tweets to go out and then sit back and let it do the job for you.
You can create more than one jukebox, load it with thousands of tweets and then send out as many as 100 tweets per day. Your account comes preloaded with two jukeboxes, one with photo content and one with quotes, to get you started.
You have the option to tweet jukebox content once, regularly or until a specific date.
Tweet Jukebox allows you to set schedules for different times on different days of the week. When it runs out of content, it automatically starts tweeting again from the beginning.
The scheduling engine is very flexible. Set a scheduled tweet once a year on a specific date (think holidays and annual events), or choose to tweet by frequency. You can also set a time for each tweet to go out, depending on user engagement.
Tweet Jukebox also lets you track who has mentioned you. This can be visualized by the tweets themselves, or shown in a graph format. Choose from mentions in the last 7 days, 30 days, month or previous month.
The Jukebox Store allows you to download preloaded jukeboxes with content from other high-profile users.
Another handy feature is the ability to thank up to 50 users every Friday.
#2: Create Text Overlay for Images Using Spruce
Spruce is a free, easy-to-use tool that allows you to quickly create images with custom text for Twitter (and Facebook). Choose an image from the library, add your text, preview your post and publish it. It's as simple as that.
Spruce allows you to upload your own images and download completed images for later use. You can check the post and add text before publishing it.
Keep in mind that you don't have to tweet using the service, so you can create and add them to your scheduler, too.
#3: Manage Followers With ManageFlitter
ManageFlitter is a highly useful tool for managing your followers and posts. The functionality of the free account is pretty good. Or you can choose from two levels of paid accounts to get more features, including analytics.
In the left column of the main dashboard, find out more about your followers by exploring different views, such as Not Following Back, No Profile Image, Inactive, Fake (Spam), Influence and Muted Users. This allows you to easily unfollow accounts that don't offer any benefit, identify spam followers and more.
For example, suppose you want to find people you're following but who aren't following you back. Choose the Not Following Back option to see a list of users to check out and unfollow if necessary.
Hover over a user's name to bring up details about that person, including his or her bio, location, language and average number of tweets per day.
You can use ManageFlitter to post using the PowerPost feature, which tells you the best times to post based on users' activity.
Additionally, you can post suggested content that's based on your niche, add an RSS feed to find further content (although you can't post it directly to Twitter) and view your queued content so you know what's scheduled.
You can also connect your Google+ account so that it posts straight to Twitter for you.
#4: Manage Relationships Using Commun.it
Commun.it is a Twitter relationship management tool. There are three paid plans to choose from, depending on the features you need. You can also access and use the free account, with limited functionality.
The dashboard is full of useful information.

by @ Social Media Marketing Podcast helps your business thrive with social media

Fri Jan 02 03:00:31 PST 2015

Do you want to drive more traffic to your site with Pinterest?
Are you looking for ways to improve your Pinterest exposure?
To explore how Pinterest can help your business I interview Pinterest expert, Vincent Ng.
More About This Show
The Social Media Marketing podcast is an on-demand talk radio show from Social Media Examiner. It's designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.
In this episode I interview Vincent Ng, host of the Pictures to Profits podcast and author of Pinterest Marketing: How to Search Optimize Your Pins and Boards for Pinterest. He's a Pinterest expert and blogs at MCNG Marketing.
Vincent shares how to use Pinterest to drive more traffic to your website.
You'll discover reasons why you should use Pinterest in your social media marketing, tips on images and plugins that can boost traffic to your site and provide social proof for your company and what you need to know about Pinterest's smart feed and promoted pins.
Share your feedback, read the show notes and get the links mentioned in this episode below.
Listen Now
You can also subscribe via iTunes, RSS, or Stitcher.
Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show:
Pinterest Traffic
How Vincent got started with Pinterest
While Vincent has successfully used Twitter and Facebook for his social media clients, he found neither site could drive much traffic to his blog.
Curious about Pinterest's rapid early growth, he explored the site and discovered a fair amount of traffic going to his blog from it. That is when he decided it was the site he needed to be on.
Vincent has been on Pinterest since its beta stage four years ago and has witnessed how much the platform has changed and evolved since the beginning.
Listen to the show to discover the major changes and trends Vincent has witnessed on Pinterest.
Reasons to consider Pinterest for your marketing
People are naturally drawn to attractive, magazine-quality images. Information can be processed very quickly when it's seen as an image or picture. Pinterest makes it possible to leverage beautiful, shareable images to drive more traffic to your site.
You'll hear Vincent describe how to lay out your images to get the most impact and reach from Pinterest.
Pinterest is also a powerful way for users to discover things they might not have expected to find. It's become a visual search engine for products and can link items together based on how they've been previously pinned or searched.
Vincent shares how many people bypass Google and go directly to Pinterest to search for products and lifestyle topics because the content is curated by actual users and the results tend to be high quality.
Listen to the show to find out how Pinterest's visual recognition engine links related products to be searched and discovered.
The biggest mistakes people make on Pinterest
The biggest mistake businesses make on Pinterest is neglecting to redirect the source of a pin back to their site. The source is the URL where you want users to be directed when they click on your pin.
You could potentially get hundreds of pins and repins on your image, but you lose the opportunity to grow your blog with Pinterest if you don't link directly to your site as the source of the pin.
Listen to the show to learn how to edit your image to redirect where you would like your pins to point users.
The Pinterest smart feed and what marketers need to know about it
The Pinterest smart feed is a new algorithm based on the quality of the pin, the quality of the pin's source (blog or website) and relevance of pins. Each factor is measured based on the number of users who link to the specific pin or the source.
High-quality images and the most popular sources are given preferential treatment on Pinterest's feed. It also boosts pins from people you follow and will suggest related pins based on what's pinned...

by @ Social Media Marketing Podcast helps your business thrive with social media

Fri May 30 03:00:42 PDT 2014

Do you want to grow better relationships with market influencers?
Are you wondering if interviewing people can help your business?
To learn how interviewing people can help build power relationships for your business, I interview John Lee Dumas for this episode of the Social Media Marketing podcast.
More About This Show
The Social Media Marketing podcast is a show from Social Media Examiner.
It's designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.
The show format is on-demand talk radio (also known as podcasting).
In this episode, I interview John Lee Dumas, author of the book Podcast Launch and host of the EntrepreneurOnFire podcast—a top-ranked business podcast. John's podcast is a daily show and he has interviewed more than 600 business owners!
John shares how he got started with his podcast, how he attracts so many top guests and why he chose his format and niche.
You'll discover the benefits that come from the relationships you build through podcasts before, during and after the show is released.
Share your feedback, read the show notes and get the links mentioned in this episode below!
Listen Now
You can also subscribe via iTunes, RSS, or Stitcher.
Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show:
Relationship Marketing
John's interview technique when he first started out
John explains that he had to work at his interview technique every single day. The very first interviews he ever did were for the EntrepreneurOnFire podcast.
He says that if you listen to his first 50 episodes, it's obvious that he was new to it.
Before John started his own podcast, he loved listening to the likes of Andrew Warner of Mixergy, Pat Flynn of Smart Passive Income and David Siteman Garland of Rise To The Top. He noticed that nobody was doing a 7-day-a-week show, and decided to give it a go.
Although he knew he wouldn't be great in the beginning, he knew he had to start somewhere. So he reached out to people in the space to see if they would talk to him.
You'll hear why John batch-processes his interviews for the week ahead, and how many episodes he did before he felt like he had settled in. John is now around the 608th episode mark.
When you host a podcast, you need to come across as authentic. John advises anyone who is hesitant to host a show to just start talking into a microphone and have some fun.
Listen to the show to find out why you don't have to edit out every imperfection when you first start out.
The underlying premise to the strategy for EntrepreneurOnFire
John says that he truly wanted to build a lifestyle business that he could be passionate about. To be able to do this, he knew he had to grow an audience. He had to become a leader in a particular area, industry and niche.
When John listened to podcasts, he connected with them straightaway. He felt like he was having close relationships with the hosts and their guests—people he had never met. He says it's like being the third person in a conversation when you listen to these shows.
For John to be able to do a show, he knew he had to be a little bit different and come up with a unique selling proposition. This is when he had his "Ah-ha" moment for a 7-day-a-week podcast. He realized that if he could interview the likes of Amy Porterfield and Adam Baker, and get them to share their journey on his platform, then he could potentially build his audience.
You'll hear what John did to help him overcome his fear of rejection so he could build his platform from day one.
Listen to the show to hear the story behind how John and I first connected.
How interviewing the pros has helped John's business
John's goal from the very beginning has been to interview people who not only talk about what they are successful with right now, but also share their failings along the way. John really wanted to break it down so it would connect with his lis...

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Mon Oct 19 02:00:08 PDT 2015

Does social media marketing contribute to your bottom line?
Are you looking for tools to boost your ROI?
As social media changes from an engagement-driven environment to a conversion-driven one, new tools are emerging to help you market more effectively.
In this article you'll discover four tools to improve your social media marketing.
Listen to this article:
#1: Connect Locally With Pointro
When we think of local marketing, a narrow set of marketing choices comes to mind, such as offline marketing in local communities through events, sampling at stores, posters and fliers handed out by high-schoolers and the like. Alternately, local marketing also refers to local SEO and how to get visitors who are searching for what you offer online to walk into your store.
Pointro is a relatively new social media tool that allows local business owners to connect with patrons in real time and offer them excellent service at the point where it matters most. You get a notification each time a customer checks into your restaurant or store. You can then listen to the conversation and chime in where you're needed.
You also get instant access to photos taken by customers at your location and shared with their networks on social channels. Use this user-generated content to showcase customer loyalty to your brand and to enhance your credibility with future customers.
Keep in mind that according to a HubSpot survey, 73% of users are likely to buy from a brand that responds to them on social media. Using Pointro to tap into that preference will build a relationship that leads to a conversion.
#2: Focus on Loyal Advocates With ManageFlitter
Managing relationships with social media brand advocates is a huge part of a successful social media program. Brand advocates are satisfied customers who directly impact the perceptions of other followers towards your business on social media. They also help spread a good word about your business far beyond your immediate network. In other words, cultivating brand advocates can be a huge win for converting undecided users.
To be able to focus your energies on brand advocates, you need to know who matters and who doesn't. ManageFlitter is a tool that allows you to pare down your Twitter follower lists to only those users who truly like and engage with your brand on social media.
By weeding out accounts that are dormant or have unfollowed you, you're freeing up your time and not wasting your marketing budget on fans that exist in name only. ManageFlitter also gives you the best times of day to publish posts for the best response, which is particularly helpful if you have a business or brand that operates across multiple time zones.
#3: Reward Purchase Sharing With AddShoppers
As previously discussed, brand advocates hold immense power in convincing other users to convert to your brand. A few years ago, Nielsen’s Global Trust in Advertising study revealed that 92% of customers trust recommendations from friends and family when making a purchase decision.
This means the friends and families of your existing customers have the potential to turn into easy conversion targets. All you need to do is reach them at the right time with the right message.
AddShoppers is a suite of tools that allows you to do that. One of AddShoppers' key features is the purchase-sharing auto-prompt that appears as soon as users complete their purchase. This feature allows users to share the details of their purchase (product descriptions, website URL, pricing and more) on social media.
The tool also allows you to offer rewards (future purchase discounts, free shipping, etc.) to customers for sharing their purchases on social media.
AddShoppers works well with ecommerce sites built on nearly every platform, including (but not limited to) WordPress, Shopify, Magento and PrestaShop.
#4: Deliver Relevant Content With Tweet Jukebox
Social media automation is a lot more than just sc...

by Guy Sheetrit @ Over The Top SEO

Mon Feb 27 06:44:31 PST 2017

Is 2017 the year of Voice Search? One of the most exciting and interesting things about the internet, and SEO in particular, is the ever changing landscape. The internet is in a constant state of flux, which is why we must always be flexible and prepare ourselves to change strategy at the drop of a […]

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Mon Jul 06 03:00:55 PDT 2015

Are you part of a team that collaborates on content?
Want tools to make the collaboration process more efficient?
Whether you're working on blog post or creating social media updates, the more people involved, the richer the results can be. Using collaboration tools makes the process smooth and seamless.
In this article I'll share eight collaboration tools to improve your productivity.
Listen to this article:
#1: Map Out Content Using MindMeister
MindMeister is an effective brain-mapping tool that allows you to visually break down complex concepts and show how each idea flows into another. It's perhaps the fastest, easiest way to get a point across effectively.
MindMeister is browser-based and available on mobile apps. There are a variety of templates and numerous additional features for brainstorming, project plans and more. Map out your content strategy with your team, no matter where they're located.
Price: Free plan gives you access to three maps. Note: MindMeister collaboration features are included in the free plan. There are multiple premium plan options, starting at $36 for 6 months with a 30-day free trial.
#2: Brainstorm in Real Time With Scribblar
Scribblar is an educational tool that can also be used for collaborative brainstorming sessions.
Primarily an educational tool, Scribblar is a favorite among students and teachers for its ability to create multiple "rooms" that allow you to collaborate in real time. Plus, you can text and audio chat during the process.
While there is an obvious academic tone, Scribblar is a great tool for creative people who excel when they let their ideas flow in a free-form conversation. When working on your content plan, eliminate endless emails and conference calls. Just jump onto Scribblar and work on the same dashboard together.
Price: A very limited free plan (2 users, 1 room) and a variety of premium plans that start at $9 a month are available.
Note: Chatwoo can be a good free alternative. It's online chat room software which is completely free. You can use it to collaborate with your team (on a private corporate site) or with your site visitors.
#3: Compile Research on Cyfe
Cyfe is a multi-purpose research and productivity dashboard that lets you collect data, create to-do lists, archive search results and more. It helps you monitor social media mentions and activity too.
For companies that need a bit more oomph in their collaborative tools, Cyfe provides a long feature list to help users work together in the cloud.
Price: There's a free plan with the option to upgrade to premium ($19 per month; $14 a month if paid annually).
#4: Plan Editorial on GatherContent
Specifically designed for collaborating, GatherContent is every social media manager's and blog editor's dream.
It allows you to create an effective project or editorial calendar that has everything in the same place, and is organized through the same dashboard. This ultra-organized information keeps everyone on the team on the same page.
GatherContent is easy to use and minimizes the task of managing workflow, no matter how many people you invite to be a part of the process. Never cross wires or miss deadlines again.
Price: $79 per month with a 30-day free trial. Note: Check out CoSchedule as another option.
#5: Manage Projects on Trello
If you need a simple way to set tasks for everyone on your team, Trello is probably the best project management tool for this purpose.
Once you have a plan, create boards and then pin cards with tasks to each one. Then, write either checklists or standard text instructions for what each task entails, and assign those cards to different team members.
When the work is done, attach documents to the completed card if you like and list it as complete. Also, @tag team members to quickly get their attention and connect with them.
Price: Free.
Note: Also check out Wrike for easy project management.

by Blair Symes @ DialogTech

Thu Sep 07 08:14:34 PDT 2017

In the past two years the automotive industry has experienced a pronounced and well-publicized shift from desktop to mobile shopping. Studies show that most shoppers run searches for vehicles and visit automotive websites on their mobile devices. Automotive manufacturers and dealers have responded by shifting the majority of their digital ad spend from targeting desktops and laptops to targeting mobile […]

by @ Social Media Marketing Podcast helps your business thrive with social media

Fri Apr 26 03:00:30 PDT 2013

Do you use Pinterest for business?
Are you wondering how Pinterest can help your business drive more traffic to your website or blog?
To learn about Pinterest marketing, I interview Melanie Duncan for this episode of the Social Media Marketing podcast.
More About This Show
The Social Media Marketing podcast is a show from Social Media Examiner.
It's designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.
The show format is on-demand talk radio (also known as podcasting).
In this episode, I interview Melanie Duncan, owner of Luxury Monograms and CustomGreekThreads. She also does online training for business owners and spends a lot of time focusing on Pinterest marketing.
Melanie shares how Pinterest is a different social media platform and why marketers should use it.
You'll learn how to create clickable images and calls to action that will lead to increased visibility and sales.
Share your feedback, read the show notes and get the links mentioned in this episode below!
Listen Now
You can also subscribe via iTunes, RSS, or Stitcher.
Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show:
Pinterest Marketing
How has Pinterest helped your business?
Melanie describes how she stumbled across Pinterest marketing in January of this year, when she started to receive a high volume of traffic and orders to her site.
It wasn't until she logged into Google Analytics that she realized Pinterest's potential in terms of bringing new customers and traffic to her site.
You'll discover how Melanie formed a Pinterest strategy and how it helped her business get more exposure and sales.
Melanie explains how she first saw Pinterest traffic come from Luxury Monograms. People were pinning things from her site, even before she had a Pin It button. You'll learn how people can pin from your blog or website.
Melanie explains that it wasn't just the high-quality product photography that was being repinned, but also the basic product photos. You'll discover why it's not all about the quality of the photos and why calls to action are so important.
Listen to the show to find out what calls to action work best and how they can increase engagement by 80%.
Some of the biggest mistakes marketers make on Pinterest
Melanie explains how Pinterest is a very different type of social media platform and that many marketers or small business owners don't really understand how to use it for their business.
A lot of us start with a personal Pinterest profile. Research shows that 80% of pins on Pinterest are repins. People log onto Pinterest, they look at their newsfeed and repin. They don't really go out across the Internet and try to find new forms of information to put on the platform.
One of the biggest mistakes marketers make is that they don't create enough original content. You'll hear what you need to do to make a real difference and get the results you want.
Listen to the show to find out where the opportunity is for marketers.
How to determine if Pinterest is worth focusing on
Melanie shares how a lot of service business owners believe that they can't be on Pinterest, as it's only for physical products. You'll learn why this isn't true.
Pinterest has a free analytics tool that is available to all business pages now. You'll discover 3 steps you need to take to have access.
Once you have access, Pinterest hooks up the analytics to your sites. You can now track your pin activity, such as:
How many people are pinning from your website
Whether your pins are being repinned and how often
How much traffic is being sent to your site
What your impressions are like
It's a very easy tool to help track how quickly people respond and engage with your content.
You'll discover the only way to get traffic from Pinterest to your blog or website and why it doesn't have to be something pretty.

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Mon Jun 29 02:00:39 PDT 2015

Do you use Instagram to promote your products and services?
Interested in ways to drive sales with your posts?
A good Instagram post is not as simple as just snapping a photo, applying a filter and posting it to your news feed. To have a real impact, your posts need to be carefully crafted and shared with purpose and intent.
In this article you'll discover how to create Instagram posts that increase engagement and drive sales.
Listen to this article:
#1: Design Images to Capture Attention
If you're posting a photo of a product on Instagram, be creative with the shot and make sure it reflects well on the product.
Find an Interesting Angle
Think about whether you should show the entire product, frame the shot a certain way or include another item to accompany the product.
Warby Parker posts creative photos of their eyewear on Instagram, often garnering more than 2,000 likes per post. Even with a simple pair of glasses, there are hundreds of ways to capture it in a photo.
Once you find the most effective angle for your products, stick with that approach and be consistent. Don't forget that your Instagram posts are also part of your brand.
Focus on Lighting
Whether photos are taken indoors or outdoors, good lighting is crucial. This may seem like Photography 101, but lighting also tells a story about your product. Even with careful tweaking and tuning, Instagram's editing tools often can't fix a photo taken with poor lighting.
Think about whether your photo should be shown in color or in black and white, and how to portray it best. Prada posts a variety of photos taken in unique lighting. Their exceptional professional shots speak specifically to their brand.
Use a Filter
Instagram realized early on that much of the app's value and appeal was in its filters. Each filter has a unique story that it communicates. While there is some evidence that photos with no filters perform best, filters may be necessary to achieve a coherent look for your brand.
The novelty of the #nofilter hashtag excites some users, but artistically edited photos contribute to the purpose of your posts. Does the X-Pro II filter or Valencia filter present your product in a refreshing or edgy way? There is an array of filters at your disposal to communicate a particular mood for your brand and products.
#2: Tell a Story With the Caption
You can give life to a photo with the caption. Nike's caption here is evocative and tells a story instead of merely describing the product.
It's important to identify what type of description resonates best with your audience. In Nike's case, this photo represents the culmination of training for the Chicago Marathon.
#3: Add Relevant Hashtags
Hashtags make your photos discoverable. Use popular hashtags when they apply to your photo or your brand.
It's best to stick with three to five hashtags at a time. You don't want to overload your photo with too many hashtags because that can be viewed as desperation. Also be cautious about piggybacking on current trending hashtags.
Some brands create their own relevant hashtags, such as Tiffany & Co.’s #TiffanyLeather or #TiffanyAtlas, strategically crossed with more purpose-driven popular tags.
Create a Hashtag Campaign
Regramming user-generated content is one of the best ways to promote your community and products. Create a brand-centric hashtag campaign for your followers to use.
Stitch Fix asks their fashion-forward followers to showcase their styling choices with the hashtag #StitchFixFriday. This hashtag not only fosters a sense of community, but also reaffirms who your audience is.
Remember that engagement is a two-way street. Follow and pay attention to your followers, and like the posts that are strategically and aesthetically aligned with your brand.
#4: Use a Call to Action
Consider adding a call to action to your post, which prompts customers or shoppers to do something.

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Thu Sep 17 03:00:59 PDT 2015

Do you want more engagement on your social channels?
Have you considered using visual content?
There are easy-to-use tools and tactics you can use to create visual content that attracts viewers and engages them.
In this article you’ll discover how to use visual content to boost engagement.
Listen to this article:
#1: Create Animated GIFs From YouTube Video
Millennials (people reaching young adulthood around the year 2000) are known as Generation GIF. If you check out publications like BuzzFeed, Gawker and Deadspin or browse the front pages of Reddit and Tumblr, you'll see animated GIFs are everywhere.
Animated GIFs expand your marketing channels and increase the chances of your content going viral on Tumblr and Reddit. And from there, content is often picked up by major publications and blogs.
There are tools that make it easy to create animated GIFs. Here are a couple you might want to try:
MakeaGif is a free online tool that lets you create animated GIFs using photos, YouTube videos, uploaded videos and web camera videos. You can also use it to modify an existing GIF.
GIFYT allows you to create high-quality GIFs from YouTube videos. With this free tool, you can select what portion of the video to turn into the GIF and add a caption.
You can check out some of the GIFs created with GIFYT here.
#2: Install On-Hover Sharing Buttons
Sometimes readers are inclined to share an image, but they either don't know how or simply forget to do so. A mild mouseover call to action that encourages a share will prompt more visual shares from viewers.
Use a plugin like WWM Social Share On Image Hover as an easy way to enable mouseover sharing (Here's how to securely install Wordpress plugins!) With this tool, you can automatically place buttons on all of your images so your viewers can share them in an instant. It's a surprisingly effective way to increase engagement.
Here’s a page where you can see mouseover share buttons in action, and here are more plugins that add image-sharing options on mouseover.
#3: Play on Emotion
Connecting with your audience on an emotional level leaves a long-lasting impact. When something sparks an emotional response, the viewer is more likely to share, comment on and remember it.
Visuals are great for this purpose. Humans respond to what they see, more so than any other form of stimulation. If you're connecting emotionally with users, they'll start to associate those feelings with your brand.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2K5trQS3JeA
According to Fractl research, the two most engaging emotions (in terms of provoking shares) are positive feelings (such as joy, interest, anticipation and trust) and the element of surprise.
#4: Celebrate Unusual Holidays
From National Hamburger Day to National Book Lovers' Day, unusual holidays are hard to resist. They're also an awesome source of visual content inspiration. There's an idea for a cool image to create almost daily.
Coca-Cola does a great job of using unusual holidays in their social media marketing. They published these images of cute animals to celebrate National Polar Bear Day.
To find holidays and observances, you can check these useful lists of unusual holidays and days of the year for inspiration.
#5: Ask Viewers to Contribute
You don't have to use your own visuals to capture your viewers' attention. Flip the script and ask your viewers to contribute their images. People love seeing their work promoted by a brand, and it makes them feel appreciated and special.
On your social channels, ask viewers to submit designs, logos, photographs, drawings or anything else uniquely suited to your product. Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest are fantastic platforms for this style of campaign.
Here are two easy-to-implement visual contest ideas to engage your audience and create more visual context around your brand.
Caption Contests
Publish an interesting image and ask your reader...

by @ Social Media Marketing Podcast helps your business thrive with social media

Fri Oct 25 03:00:07 PDT 2013

Do you use LinkedIn for your business?
Are you wondering how to use LinkedIn to find prospects and customers?
To learn about how to build strategic relationships through LinkedIn, I interview Viveka von Rosen for this episode of the Social Media Marketing podcast.
More About This Show
The Social Media Marketing podcast is a show from Social Media Examiner.
It's designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.
The show format is on-demand talk radio (also known as podcasting).
In this episode, I interview Viveka von Rosen, author of LinkedIn Marketing: An Hour a Day and founder of Linked Into Business.
Viveka shares how she prospects on LinkedIn for her business.
You'll learn about the tools available to make prospecting easy and what you need to do to get started.
Share your feedback, read the show notes and get the links mentioned in this episode below!
Listen Now
You can also subscribe via iTunes, RSS, or Stitcher.
Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show:
LinkedIn Prospecting
What is prospecting?
Viveka explains that a prospect is someone whom you either find or attract to you who's in a company, business, industry or organization that has a need for your product or service.
Before social media, prospecting was done through very expensive outbound sales. However, social media and LinkedIn in particular have changed this. You'll hear why Viveka loves prospecting.
Social media has changed us from the age of the seller to the age of the consumer. Consumers now tell us want they want. A large part of prospecting is to know who your ideal clients are and know their needs. Facebook, Yelp, LinkedIn and Twitter make the research a lot easier.
As a seller, it's also a lot easier and cheaper to get out there and position yourself as a thought leader. This engenders the feeling of "know, like and trust" in a client or prospect with whom you may not have had direct interaction. It makes it easier to close the sale.
In Jill Konrath's book, Selling to BIG Companies, she talks about how you have to know whom to sell to. This is why LinkedIn is so important—it tells you who works at the companies, their positions and whom they interact with. It enables you to reach out to the right person.
Listen to the show to find out why groups can be so powerful.
LinkedIn for prospecting
Viveka explains the two aspects of prospecting—inbound and outbound. Actively prospecting is just a matter of research.
With a combination of keywords, titles, company name and location, you can use the Advanced Search on LinkedIn to discover the people you want to interact with. These are your prospects.
You'll hear about some of the great benefits of LinkedIn and also some of its limitations.
One of the most powerful search categories is Location. Not only can you see who lives in your town, but also when you attend trade shows or conferences, it's a great way to connect with people before the event.
A really cool app that you can use for conferences is Bizzabo, which has a LinkedIn API interface. There are thousands of events in there and you can see who will be at the event. It shows you their LinkedIn profile. In the show, you'll also discover another app which can be used for prospecting.
If you want to meet prospects face to face before an event, a cool new app called Trendr will set up a live meeting place.
Listen to the show to find out how you can discover if a prospect is active in a particular LinkedIn group.
Viveka's experience on LinkedIn
Viveka is extremely active on LinkedIn, either prospecting or inbound. She says that 70-80% of her business comes through LinkedIn and the remainder through things that she markets on Twitter.
When you own a LinkedIn group, it allows you to position yourself as a thought leader. Viveka owns quite a few groups.

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Tue Oct 06 03:00:34 PDT 2015

Do you want to generate leads from Instagram?
Have you considered reaching out to influencers?
An influencer campaign is an effective way to promote your business and generate leads by leveraging the audience of another Instagram account.
In this article you'll discover how to run an influencer campaign on Instagram.
Listen to this article:
#1: Reach Out to the Right Influencers
The first thing to do is to identify potential Instagram influencers and reach out to them.
Identify Influencers
Take your time exploring Instagram pages that are related to your business and whose followers align with your target audience. You can simply go to the Explore tab and search by keyword to find potential candidates.
Once you've found an interesting account, look at the suggested accounts that appear next to the account's Follow button.
Make a list of at least 10 accounts you want to target, focusing on ones with more than 100,000 followers. The more substantial the account's follower base, the more successful your campaign is likely to be.
However, don't look only at the number of followers that an account has, because that doesn't tell the whole story. Look at the posts' engagement (the number of likes and comments) and make sure there's a good balance.
Contact Influencers
After you've compiled a list of influencers, it's time to reach out to them. You want to ask if they would consider adding a link to your landing page to their bio.
Instagram pages that are open to advertising opportunities typically make it easy for you to contact them. In their bios they will provide an email address and often a Kik contact name as well. (Kik is a messaging app commonly used by the Instagram community.)
Once you have their contact information, it's time to craft the message you're going to send to influencers. Explain that you're looking to promote your Instagram account and business, and want to know if they're open to advertising opportunities. If they are, you'd like them to send you a quote.
You'll get different types of quotes, based on the number of followers for the account, its engagement and the industry. Prices may also vary depending on whether the account is personal or branded.
Try to negotiate on pricing. You're not dealing with Instagram directly, so pricing can be tailored based on your profile and situation. Some Instagram accounts earn over $10,000 a month, so don't be shy about negotiating on prices.
Keep in mind that if you're a small business, you may want to reach out to smaller accounts first. Then if you see a nice return, you can move on to larger accounts for future influencer campaigns.
If you contact a personal Instagram account with over 500,000 followers, the account owner might not be the one who replies to you. Instead, you may hear from an agency or a manager who is acting on their behalf.
#2: Set Up a Landing Page
After you have a list of influencers who've agreed to work with you, you need to create a landing page for your campaign. The landing page should be a simple web page and include an opt-in form. You want to drive traffic from Instagram to your landing page and invite visitors to provide their contact information. To do that, you'll need to provide a free offer to incentivize them.
The offer can be a free guide, report, lesson, ebook or webinar in exchange for something from users. Because you want to generate leads, ask your visitors to provide their email address. Remember that the more valuable the information you offer, the more likely people will appreciate and remember your business.
The goal of your landing page is not to sell but to attract new leads. To catch the attention of Instagram users, the page needs to be clear, concise and engaging. It's also important that the page is responsive since most of your traffic will come from mobile devices.
#3: Launch Your Campaign
After you choose an influencer,

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Thu Apr 07 03:00:30 PDT 2016

Do you spend too much time adding customer data to spreadsheets?
Looking for ways to automate some of your marketing tasks?
If you're creating content for a target audience, automated tools can free up your time to engage as a human when and where it matters most.
In this article you'll discover four ways to integrate automated tools into your social media marketing.
Listen to this article:
#1: Search for Prospects
You can use Twitter's search engine to pull together a list of leads, but the process can be time-consuming. For example, suppose you're looking for U.S. residents between the ages of 18 and 35 who are interested in Lincoln cars. Rather than do a Twitter search, let an automated tool like Audiense (formerly SocialBro) do the work for you.
Once the search is complete, you'll need to check the results manually. If you added the word "Lincoln" to your search query, you want to follow leads who are interested in the car, not users quoting Abraham Lincoln in their profile.
In other cases, you'll need to vet your leads. What are potential customers and audience members talking about in their tweets? Before you use automated tools to interact with users, you need to make sure that they're the users you're looking for.
If you're looking for high-profile prospects, you can also use tools like BuzzSumo or Babbly to find profiles based on people's interests, past shares, and bios. For example, use the Amplification tab in BuzzSumo to search for influencers by topic. You can sort by the type of influencers you're looking for, such as bloggers, companies, or journalists.
The results show each influencer's page authority, domain authority, follower count, retweet ratio, reply ratio, and average retweets. This allows you to separate and search through the list by goals and objectives.
Then you can export those influencers to an Excel document and use it to target them with your marketing.
#2: Segment Your Audience
It's hard to remember life before Google Analytics and the days before beautiful dashboards of data existed on social media platforms. Now, you can mine most social media networks for insights and analytics data to help you understand who comprises your audience.
For example, to find the demographics and locations of your Facebook fans, go to your page's Facebook Insights. Click the People tab to see a breakdown of the age and gender of your fans, where they live, and the languages they speak.
Tools like Facebook Insights will provide data about your audience, but it's up to you to answer "so what?" and "why?" based on the segments represented in those numbers.
#3: Engage With Leads
Engagement is new territory in the world of automated tools. New tools allow you to connect with leads with strategic auto-interactions, which are a great icebreaker. Once you initiate a conversation, human interaction is essential. Your customer or audience wants to know that there are real people behind your business.
Use a tool like Socedo to automate engagement with potential customers or initial engagements on Twitter. Socedo will ask you to specify who you're trying to connect with, what you hope to achieve, and what your message is.
You'll also need to tell Socedo what actions to take on Twitter when you approve a lead.
You'll need to approve or decline potential leads found by Socedo. Socedo will then take care of the rest based on the actions you specified.
Some tools allow you to use auto-reply features based on phrases or words used in an inquiry. However, there's a margin of error that your response won't really answer the question asked. At that point, it's up to you to make sure your customers feel like they're being heard and want to continue engaging with your business.
#4: Plan and Schedule Content
Publishing content in real time isn't always possible when you have meetings to attend or work in a different time zone than your clients.

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Thu Oct 15 03:00:36 PDT 2015

Are you building a network on Google+?
Do you want to keep your connections organized?
Sorting people and pages into circles allows you to read the news you want from your stream and connect with specific audiences.
In this article I'll share how to use circles to improve your Google+ network.
Listen to this article:
#1: Fill Your Google+ Circles
Google+ profiles and pages use circles to organize the contacts they follow. Think of circles the same way you would Facebook interest lists or Twitter lists, but with more functionality. Both profiles and pages can add other profiles and pages to their circles to follow their public updates.
Profiles come with four default circles: Family, Friends, Acquaintances and Following. Pages come with four default circles: Following, Customers, VIPs and Team Members. Use these circles or delete them and create your own custom circles.
There are a few ways to add people to circles. Hover over the Add to Circles button on Google+ profiles or click the Follow button on Google+ pages to add someone to a circle. Add profiles and pages to multiple circles, based on how you plan to use them.
To see people and pages that have added you to their circles, click on the notifications icon near the top right of your Google+ screen. Then hover over the Add button to put those people into your circles.
While logged in as your Google+ profile or page, click on People in the left sidebar menu. Those are people and pages that have added you on Google+, as well as suggested people and pages from Google+. You also have the ability to search for your Gmail contacts, colleagues and classmates on Google+.
Hover over the Add buttons to put these people and pages in your circles. You can also drag people and pages into circles in the Your Circles view.
Now that you know how to add people and pages to your circles on Google+, let's look at the ways to use circles to customize your experience and your Google+ marketing.
#2: Filter What You See by Circle
One way to use your circles on Google+ is to filter your stream (news feed). As you add people and pages to your circles, think about how you would like your stream to be organized. Then add people and pages to circles according to those categories. Use the menu bar at the top of your stream to filter by your circles, so you get whatever information you want to read, when you want it.
The Google+ iOS app has a similar menu at the top to filter your stream. Click on the All drop-down to see a list of your circles, and then select a circle to view its updates.
#3: Target Your Circles
Share Updates With Specific Circles
Sharing to specific circles is just like sharing to friends' lists on Facebook. Think about the groups of people who would enjoy specific types of updates, and then add people and pages to circles according to those categories. When you create targeted updates, select the relevant circles of people to receive them.
For updates you want to share with everyone, use the Public option. For updates you want to keep private for friends and family, or share with only members of your business's VIP group, use their circles.
When you share to specific circles, everyone in those circles will see who received the update.
Keep this "public" aspect in mind when you decide which people and pages to add to what circles.
Email Your Circles
One advantage of sharing updates with specific circles (as opposed to publicly) is the ability to send an email to the people and pages within those circles. This feature works depending on the settings for people and pages in your circles and whether those people and pages have added you to their circles.
Remember, the email feature only works for a total of 100 people or fewer. Therefore, you may want to create one or multiple circles for the specific purpose of sharing via email. Recipients will receive an email that looks similar to t...

by @ Social Media Marketing Podcast helps your business thrive with social media

Fri Jun 02 03:00:53 PDT 2017

Wondering how to increase your business's reach on social media?
Have you considered partnering with an influencer?
To explore how to develop business relationships with influencers, I interview Neal Schaffer.
More About This Show
The Social Media Marketing podcast is an on-demand talk radio show from Social Media Examiner. It's designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.
In this episode, I interview Neal Schaffer, author of three social media books including Maximize Your Social. He teaches social media strategy at Rutgers University and is the founder of PDCA Social, an agency that specializes in helping Japanese businesses leverage American social media platforms.
Neal explores the difference between paid and earned influencers.
You'll discover how to use influencer marketing to scale your social media results.
Share your feedback, read the show notes, and get the links mentioned in this episode below.
Listen Now
Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show:
Influencer Marketing
Why Influencer Marketing?
Social media is a noisy place and the days of 100% organic success are over. Brands, companies, and practitioners need to use paid social to get noticed. In this environment, Neal believes other people can accelerate your social media marketing efforts. Put simply, you need to consider other users on social media who might be able to help spread the word about your brand and amplify your message.
Neal identifies three different types of "others": your employees or partners (employee advocacy), your fans (brand advocacy), and influencers (also known as influencer marketing). Each type is powerful in its own way, and in 2017, influencer marketing is the most mainstream. It can help you cut through the noise in a different way than paid social. Plus, influencer marketing is ideally more authentic and leads to more engagement.
I ask Neal to explain what influencer marketing is, for people who are new to the concept. Neal says influencer marketing involves partnering with people who have influence over others. In the old days, newspaper writers and television broadcasters had tremendous influence. Now, in certain online or social media communities, people on YouTube or Instagram are famous and influential in a way that's similar to big-name media celebrities.
Some social media influencers focus on one network, such as Instagram or YouTube, whereas others have appeal across several platforms. With influencer marketing, you work with an influencer who talks about your brand, and those mentions of your product or service have a positive effect on your business.
People become influencers on social media because they're creating their own valuable content. They have a regular audience that cares about the influencer's tips, recommendations, or other content.
However, unlike a true celebrity, a person doesn't need a million followers or subscribers to be an influencer. They need to have relevance only in their community. For example, a YouTuber may have never heard of a podcasting influencer. That's okay. The podcaster needs to have influence only within their specific podcasting community.
Listen to the show to hear more about how social influencers compare to big-name celebrities.
How to Discover and Evaluate Potential Influencers
To begin, use listening tools and do keyword searches to learn who in your industry is talking about topics or products relevant to your business. For instance, a consumer brand selling to moms needs to know which mommy bloggers are talking about products similar to theirs, or which Instagrammers are taking photos and using hashtags related to their products. A B2B company needs to seek out tech bloggers who carry a lot of weight.
Remember, influence isn't only about the number of followers. Find people who are producing content that seems to have an effect.

by Today's Industry Insider @ The Kissmetrics Marketing Blog

Wed Aug 16 08:30:06 PDT 2017

In real estate, the axiom is location, location, location. It’s first and foremost. The number one consideration. For your digital efforts – email, web pages, eCommerce platforms – an argument could be made for a few different ones: search engine optimization (SEO), the user experience (UX), conversion rate optimization (CRO), or perhaps something else entirely. […]

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Tue May 31 02:00:50 PDT 2016

Is third-party content part of your social media marketing mix?
Do you have multiple people in your company who discover content?
With the right process, a team can become a content-curation powerhouse.
In this article, you'll discover how to set up a collaborative workflow for content curation.
Listen to this article:
#1: Establish Team Structure
Collaboration starts with structure. It's vital to establish clear roles and communicate exactly who's responsible for what. Two roles are needed: a coordinator and a group of contributors.
Coordinator
The coordinator's job is to identify major topics that your target audience cares about, and to make a master list of how all of these topics can be grouped together.
For example:
Leadership
Social media marketing
Online marketing
Email marketing
Landing pages
Conversion rate optimization
Product development
Pricing strategies
Industry news
Fun stuff
Next, match these topics to the contributors in your company so that they collect and submit content they naturally run into.
Contributors
Contributors help you generate a diverse flow of all things sharable. As you assemble contributors, remember to look beyond your social media or marketing team. Accessing more cross-discipline sources means you'll have more content to choose from.
What matters is quantity, creating what Andy Crestodina calls a "content cannon." Ask specific people for specific amounts of content on designated topics within set timeframes.
Hi Tim,
The last optimization report you researched turned out great. In fact, I'd love to share many of the helpful resources you found while putting it together on our social channels.
The next time you come across something like [article], please send it to me on [collection tool].
Even better, since I know you work on projects like that regularly, please provide me with three posts and an infographic along those same lines by next Friday.
Thanks,
Aaron
This specificity is crucial in the next step.
#2: Choose a Content Collection Tool
The content your contributors suggest will come in all shapes and sizes: long-form blog posts, short-form posts, quotes, infographics, charts, stats, case studies, slide decks, videos, white papers, and more.
For collaborative social media, it's essential to find a tool that allows you to gather and schedule content. Here are some tools to consider for collecting content.
Slack
Slack allows you to create topic-specific channels such as #leadership, #product-dev, #customer-service, etc. As you create each channel, invite specific contributors based on the types of content they naturally come across.
With Slack, you can even create custom emoji reactions to note which channels you plan to share the content on.
Trello
Use Trello to build a social media collaboration board. You can organize your contributors' suggestions based on the type of content.
Or organize your contributors' suggestions based on topics.
Memit
Memit brings together the clipping and collecting abilities of tools like Evernote and Pocket and will allow multiple users to contribute directly to topical collections.
In addition to saving links, you can save contributions directly to your preferred cloud platform. This represents a great two-for-one feature. It allows you to maximize not only social content curation, but also internal curation of useful resources.
As the coordinator, you can select and share content directly to platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and LinkedIn. Metrics are also tracked.
Regardless of the tool you select, be sure you can create multiple, manageable collections for each topic and invite contributors to the specific collections.
#3: Evaluate Content for Fit
It's important that the content you share on social media stands out. For this, your selection process needs some criteria.

by Govind Agarwal @ SubmitedgeSEO

Thu Feb 02 20:18:51 PST 2017

What does a proper SEO of your website do? It helps you to rank in search engines. What happens when you rank? More people get to see your site and access your services. And what does this do to your … Continue reading →

by Marcel Casella @ Over The Top SEO

Sat Oct 22 00:09:29 PDT 2016

SEO Rank Checker What Is The Best Search Engine Rank Checker Tool? If you are serious about delivering great results for your clients, then you are going to have to invest in some excellent quality tools. There are many tools available on the market, and new pieces of software are launched on an almost daily […]

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Mon Jul 11 02:00:36 PDT 2016

Looking for ways to position yourself as an industry expert?
Have you considered using video to increase your visibility?
Using video to give your own take on news and stories that are relevant to your industry can help you build influence with peers, prospects, and customers.
In this article, you'll discover how to use video to deliver value to your followers on social media.
Listen to this article:
#1: Gather Relevant News and Stories
With the proliferation of news aggregation tools, you can easily select, filter, and digest stories, videos, and content from around the world.
To collect curated content, use a news reader like Feedly (available in desktop and app versions) and add the relevant industries, brands, and blogs you want to follow. For example, if you're in the tech industry, you can add Wired, Engadget, and TechCrunch to your feed list.
Once you set up your feed and find a great article on your topic, simply save it, share it, or bookmark it for later use.
Additionally, you can create knowledge boards in Feedly that allow you to compile (and later share) the information in a single location.
Now it's time to sort the stories you've curated. Think about your target audience when you pick out interesting articles, blogs, videos, and stories, and choose five stories that will be most meaningful to your audience. For example, if you're a small business, curate a list of the best entrepreneurial stories of the month.
#2: Record Your Thoughts on Each Story in a Single Video
Now it's time to record your thoughts on video. At this point, you're curating the news-gathering phase for others and telling your audience why certain content is more important than other content. For this reason, it's important to have the rationale ready for why you made each decision. Be ready to explain to your audience why each story is relevant and different.
Much has been written about staging and how to create great video content. But in this case, the type of video you're creating is highly personal, so staging isn't essential. The simple webcam position is enough, and helps make your audience feel they're in a chat with you. Keep in mind that poor lighting or sound will raise red flags for viewers, so leave some time for testing and retesting your look.
The actual sound bites can be as short as 30 to 45 seconds, and should explain, retell, or give an opinion on the specific piece of content you're discussing. Be ready to share a quick overview of what happened or why the story is relevant. Then, give your take on the matter.
Record five short snippets (one for each story) on your webcam or phone and then send them to your favorite editing software like YouTube.
If you're a novice to video editing, check out these simple video editing techniques. In building the actual video, how well you incorporate music, graphics, and images in your video will affect the quality. Regardless, even five quick audio clips of you talking can get your audience's attention.
#3: Share Your Video Multiple Times
Once you've completed the video, the next step is to create a post to share each relevant headline on your social channels, and include your video. By following best practices on social sharing, you should be able to use a trending hashtag to find like-minded consumers.
You can also head over to Google Trends. From there you can map, chart, and study search patterns both globally and regionally. Make notes of the stories that generate a lot of activity, as well as any hashtags associated with those stories.
When you share content from a written article, give the journalist or blogger who wrote the piece a shout-out. For example, tag them in a Facebook post, mention them in a tweet, and tag them in a LinkedIn update. This can encourage that person to share your take on the piece.
From there, you should tweet influential people who have voiced their opinion on one of the stor...

by @ Social Media Marketing Podcast helps your business thrive with social media

Fri Jan 16 03:00:37 PST 2015

Have you considered starting a podcast?
Would you like to discover how to use a podcast to grow your business?
To explore why marketers are placing big bets on podcasting, I interview Jay Baer and Joe Pulizzi.
More About This Show
The Social Media Marketing podcast is an on-demand talk radio show from Social Media Examiner. It's designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.
In this episode I interview Jay Baer and Joe Pulizzi. Jay is the host of the Social Pros podcast and Jay Today. He's also the man behind MarketingPodcasts.com. His company is Convince & Convert. Joe podcasts at This Old Marketing and Content Inc. He's the founder of the Content Marketing Institute and the man behind the Content Marketing World conference.
Jay, Joe and I explore how podcasting has evolved since we all started.
You'll discover how podcasting can help your business, how to work with sponsors and more.
Share your feedback, read the show notes and get the links mentioned in this episode below.
Listen Now
You can also subscribe via iTunes, RSS, or Stitcher. How to subscribe/review on iPhone.
Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show:
Podcasting for Business
Why Joe and Jay started podcasts
Joe, who has been podcasting since November 2013, explains how encouragement and research led him to start a podcast.
His company did a gap analysis to find out the biggest difference in tactics between the most and least effective marketing professionals. Two tactics—books and podcasts—are the factors that made the difference. He noticed the audio version of his book Epic Content Marketing really took off, so he figured there must be something to audio.
Joe shares how his and Robert Rose's podcast evolved. Joe recalls how once after their weekly phone call about what was going on in content marketing, he said, "We should have recorded that." Robert asked, "Why don't we?" They launched This Old Marketing the following week.
Jay started podcasting in January 2012, and just finished the third season of his Social Pros podcast, which totals about 150 episodes.
Jay explains that Tristin Handy, who was director of marketing at Argyle Social at the time, said, "Did you ever think about doing a podcast? We should do a podcast." And Jay thought, "No and okay." They got together and decided to create a show that paid attention to the unsung heroes of social media. Jay says it's grown far beyond the expectations he had for it at the beginning.
Listen to the show to discover which podcasts I listened to when I started the Social Media Marketing podcast.
How podcasting helps their businesses
When Joe looked at the behaviors of those who attend Content Marketing World, he realized his core customers engage in at least three different content vehicles, such as the newsletter, magazine and/or webinars. It's the third thing that's the tipping point, so he figured the audio content could be what gets people to the event.
Jay says the Social Pros podcast allows them to spotlight their corporate clients, as well as interview potential future clients. Podcasting has become a strong lead-generation business strategy. It's also helped Jay from a personal branding and awareness perspective, because it positions him (and his company) as a leader in the field.
Listen to the show to hear how podcasting builds customer loyalty.
Their new ventures
Joe's releasing a new book called Content Inc., which will be out in time for Content Marketing World in September. Rather than just doing a book, he's creating a platform.
"If it's important enough to be a book, it's important enough to be a bigger media property," Joe explains. "You can launch an entire platform off of a podcast." The Content Inc. podcasts are 7-10 minutes long, and reuse and repurpose his other content.
Jay recently launched Jay Today,

by @ Social Media Marketing Podcast helps your business thrive with social media

Fri Nov 07 03:00:00 PST 2014

Do you use Twitter for your business?
Are you wondering how to get more out of your Twitter marketing?
To learn how to successfully market your business using Twitter, I interview Mark Schaefer.
More About This Show
The Social Media Marketing podcast is an on-demand talk radio show from Social Media Examiner. It's designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.
In this episode, I interview Mark Schaefer, the author of The Tao of Twitter, Return on Influence and co-author of Born to Blog. He's a college educator, blogger, consultant and speaker. This is his third appearance on this show!
Mark explores what you need to know about using Twitter for your business.
You'll discover the path to Twitter success, how to utilize everything Twitter has to offer to market your business, and manage your followers and lists.
Share your feedback, read the show notes and get the links mentioned in this episode below!
Listen Now
You can also subscribe via iTunes, RSS, or Stitcher.
Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show:
Twitter Marketing
How Mark got started with Twitter
Mark believes that you really need to immerse yourself in the social web in order to truly understand it, or be successful as a consultant or teacher. Mark immersed himself in Twitter 7 years ago, when he started his own consulting business and started to teach.
Mark admits that he was not an early fan of Twitter. It took him months to figure out that this platform was more than just the advertising, technology, mentions or hashtags. Once he understood the powerful human aspect behind Twitter, it changed his life and he wanted others to understand it too.
Mark calls Twitter the greatest networking tool ever created. Many of the connections he's made around the world would not have been possible without Twitter and his blog.
Listen to the show to discover more about Twitter's powerful ability to connect you with potential clients and opportunities.
The three elements of the Tao of Twitter
Mark identifies tao as the Chinese word meaning path. He explains that there is a certain path to success.
Behind every Twitter success story, perhaps behind every social media success story, there are 3 essential elements to this path: meaningful content, a targeted audience, and authentic helpfulness.
You'll hear Mark discuss each of these three elements in detail and how they work to create meaningful connections for your business when you use Twitter.
According to Mark, there is no better way across any social media platform to create an audience than Twitter. It offers so many ways to find the right people for your business.
Listen to the show to discover how these three elements work together to lead to success on Twitter.
How businesses can use Twitter
In The Tao of Twitter, there is a chapter called "25 Ideas to Toast Your Competition". Mark offers a few examples of this in the show. He thinks that Twitter is under utilized by businesses today, yet it has the power to transform your business.
For instance, Twitter search can be the most powerful source of marketing research available to you. It offers users the ability to target an audience down to a specific zip code, sentiment, or keyword.
Twitter's Advanced Search allows you to find potential clients, conduct competitive research, track trends, or provide customer service, all in real-time.
Mark explores the benefits of paid promotions and ads on Twitter.
According to Mark, this is a great time to try Twitter advertising. The inventory is high and the cost is relatively inexpensive at the moment, but Mark projects that this may not be case for long, as more people learn to leverage this opportunity.
Listen to the show to discover a little known trick that makes Twitter advertising especially attractive to marketers.
Broadcast content versus being helpful

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Wed Jul 20 03:00:00 PDT 2016

Do you want to improve your WordPress blog?
Have you considered customizing WordPress with plugins?
One of the biggest advantages of WordPress is the sheer number of easy-to-use plugins that help marketers add functions with little hassle.
In this article, you'll discover 26 WordPress plugins for marketers.
Listen to this article:
#1: Social Profile Integration Plugins
Social Login
Plenty of websites have members-only areas or user accounts, or require users to log in to comment. Social Login will let users log into your site with a social media profile.
There are more than 30 different networks you can choose to make available for users to log in with, including Amazon, Facebook, Google+, Instagram, WordPress, and more.
Placement options for the login plugin include registration pages, sidebars, comments, and more.
This plugin is free to download and use.
Snapchat Snapcode Widget
Snapchat users don't always actively search for brands on the platform. Because of this, getting followers can sometimes depend on advertising your Snapcode across different online platforms, including your website.
The Snapchat Snapcode Widget is exactly what it sounds like; a small widget that allows you to place your Snapcode on your site. All your blog visitors have to do is take a picture of your Snapcode and upload it on Snapchat to find and follow you.
This plugin is free and easy to use.
WordPress Social Stream
When you don't want to choose between featuring your Facebook or Twitter feed, WordPress Social Stream allows you to create a combined feed from multiple social platforms to display on your site.
You can add platforms including Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, Dribble, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, and Delicious.
You can pay $19 for a regular license with 6 months of support, and have the option to upgrade to an extended license and/or 12 months of support.
Pin It Button
One of the most effective ways you can encourage users to share your content and products on Pinterest is to add Pin It buttons to your site, and the Pinterest Pin It Button comes with a range of customizable options.
The plugin will let readers select the image they want to pin from your page, although you can also select an image users will be prompted to choose when pinning.
To customize your button, choose from a variety of different colors and sizes and easily place your Pin It buttons anywhere on your blog with a shortcode.
The features above come with the free version of the plugin, but you can upgrade to the pro version for more customization features.
Custom Twitter Feeds
Placing a Twitter feed on your blog is a great way to keep your readers up to date and integrate your social media presence with your site.
Add Custom Twitter Feeds to your blog to display a customizable feed. You can choose to display only your Twitter feed, a feed from multiple Twitter users, a feed from a single user, or a feed from a hashtag.
The top of whichever feed option you choose will display a clickable CTA encouraging users to follow you on Twitter.
In addition, the Twitter feed from this plugin is mobile-responsive, automatically takes on the stylistic aspects of your theme, and search engines can find the feed content. This plugin is free and there is a pro version available.
Instagram Feed
The Instagram Feed plugin will display images from your Instagram profile on your site, and help drive traffic to your profile.
Place Instagram Feed on your site to display photos from non-private Instagram accounts, including yours or those that you're tagged in, which is great for sharing user-generated content.
You can have single or multiple feeds, plus it's mobile-responsive and was updated with the June 1 Instagram updates.
This plugin is free and there is a pro version of the plugin available.
Custom Facebook Feed

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Mon Mar 07 02:00:56 PST 2016

Are you trying to connect with influencers?
Looking for ways to streamline the process?
You can make your influencer outreach more efficient and save yourself time by combining three free tools.
In this article you'll discover how to automate your influencer outreach with BuzzSumo, Buffer, and Twitter.
Listen to this article:
#1: Identify Influencers Who Shared Similar Content
The first step is to source popular posts related to the topic you're interested in promoting. Let's use this article as the topic example.
Go to BuzzSumo.com and type in keywords related to your blog post. For example, the results for a search for "influencer outreach" returned similar articles.
After you find similar posts that are popular, you need to identify key influencers who've shared those posts.
Click on the View Links Shared button next to each post and then click Page Authority to sort your list by who has the most influence. Ideally you want to target 10-20 individuals with high authority and a large number of followers.
In this example, Brian Dean, SEMrush, and Jon Morrow all have high social authority rank, a large Twitter following, and have shared an article similar to this one.
When you reach out to identified influencers who have shared content similar to your own, you raise the chance they'll share your article. Plus their amplification of your content can drive huge exposure for your blog.
To put your best foot forward, you'll want to start engaging and interacting with the influencers you choose a few weeks before you reach out to them on Twitter.
Add your influencers to a Twitter list so you can easily monitor and engage with them on a daily basis. To put yourself on their radar, make an effort to retweet, like, quote, and spark conversations with each of your influencers.
#2: Create and Schedule Automated Tweets to Influencers
Once you're on the influencers' radar, create a two-column spreadsheet with personalized direct tweets to each of them. Make sure each tweet is no more than 143 characters long. To quickly work out the character count for each of your tweets in Excel, use this formula: =Len(enter cell).
Your spreadsheet should look something like this (including 10-20 direct tweets).
Here are some tweet templates you can adapt for your spreadsheet:
[TWITTER HANDLE] Hey [FIRST NAME], I saw you shared [CONTENT CREATORS TWITTER HANDLE + POST TOPIC] post and thought you might like this ☺ [LINK TO YOUR POST]
[TWITTER HANDLE] Hey [FIRST NAME], I saw you shared [CONTENT CREATORS TWITTER HANDLE + POST TOPIC] post. I hope you like my own refreshed version ☺ [LINK TO YOUR POST]
[TWITTER HANDLE] Hey [FIRST NAME], I saw you shared [CONTENT CREATORS TWITTER HANDLE + POST TOPIC] post and hoped you'd like my take on it ☺ [LINK TO YOUR POST]
[TWITTER HANDLE] Hey [FIRST NAME], I saw you shared [CONTENT CREATORS TWITTER HANDLE + POST TOPIC] which inspired this – hope you like it ☺ [LINK TO YOUR POST]
Once you've created the spreadsheet, copy the Tweets column into a notepad file and upload it to Bulk Buffer, a free tool you can use to bulk-upload content to your Buffer account.
Simply upload the saved notepad file where prompted, select the Twitter account where you want your tweets to upload, and click Send to Buffer.
Once your tweets are uploaded, you'll want to space out the scheduled updates in your Buffer account. This will ensure the outreach tweets aren't too frequent and don't appear spammy.
To do this, simply go to your Buffer content queue and scroll to each queued post. Then click the posting date to edit the date and time the tweet will publish.
It's a good idea to space your outreach tweets for every other day, and ensure you're sharing plenty of content in between.
#3: Follow Up
Influencers can easily miss your direct tweet due to the volume of messages they receive on a daily basis.

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Mon Aug 31 15:00:43 PDT 2015

Are you a fan of live-streaming video for business?
Have you tried Blab?
Blab, the newest platform in streaming video, lets you build a personal and business presence while creating community.
In this article I'll explore Blab and share ways you can use it for business.
Listen to this article:
About Blab
Blab.im, which is currently available on desktop and iOS (Android is coming soon), is a live-streaming video platform that lets you host your own live video show or conference with up to four people engaging at the same time. The moderator has control over who is in the three additional video seats, but anyone who wants to tune in can use the right panel to chat and the left panel to tweet.
Blab's ease of use, simplicity and functionality give it the edge over other live-streaming platforms.
For instance, Meerkat, Periscope and Facebook Mentions are mobile-only and are mostly just you talking to your audience. Plus, if you want to interview someone, he or she needs to be right next to you. And while you can include up to 10 people on a Google hangout, the session feels more like an interview and doesn't provide the same sense of engagement as a blab.
Another plus is that Blab's time length is open-ended and most blabs last about an hour. According to Shaan Puri, CEO of Blab, most people using the platform spend at least an hour "blabbing" each day.
Blab is more than just a new toy. It's a substantial method of connecting, and others are getting as excited about it as I am!
#1: Get Started on Blab
Use the same account for Blab as you do for Twitter. Just log in and you're ready to go. If you want to change your bio or notifications, click on your photo and select Settings.
Once on the platform, follow people to receive notifications about their blabs. Finding people to follow is simple: do a search by name or look anyone up by adding their Twitter handle after blab.im/.
To start a new blab, click the purple button next to your profile picture. Then give your blab a title and choose up to three tags (keywords).
Next, set up your blab to go live immediately or schedule it for the future.
Record Your Blab
If you're the moderator, you can choose to record the blab.
Within a minute of the end of the show, you'll receive two links to an mp3 or mp4 with the recording.
After you receive those links, you can upload your recorded blab as a video to YouTube or as a podcast on Libsyn, iTunes or your preferred host. Additionally, all of the blabs you record are archived for access on your profile under Replay. While archived blabs can be replayed at any time, viewers cannot chat, send feels or follow people during a replay.
Promote Your Blab
If you go live, you can tweet a link to let people know about your blab.
Promote your scheduled blabs the same way you would promote any event. Create a custom graphic, email your network, schedule a Facebook event, tweet it out and share on all of your social networks.
Moderate Your Blab
When there's an empty seat, someone can request to join in. When the moderator approves, the new person enters the video chat.
Blab is similar to a late-night talk show format. There's a host and a primary special guest. When another guest comes on, the previous guest can slide over a seat and stick around.
#2: Use Blab Chat Commands
There are a few unique commands enabled in the chat column on the right of Blab's layout.
To ask a question, type "/Q", and the word Question appears in a grey box so it stands out. To change the topic of the blab, the moderator can type "/Topic".
For a bit of fun, you can add interest to your chat comments by typing "/shrug" or "/tableflip" in the chat box. I'm not aware of other commands, but it wouldn't surprise me if the Blab development team has more Easter eggs hidden.
#3: Give Kudos to Blabbers
Instead of hearts, like those used on Periscope,

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Thu May 19 03:00:07 PDT 2016

Are you a busy blogger?
Looking for new, unique tools to help you work smarter?
The right tools will help streamline and improve your blogging.
In this article, you'll discover more than 14 tools to help bloggers quickly, efficiently perform common tasks.
Listen to this article:
#1: Source Free, Quality Images
A picture is worth a thousand words. You want them to be the right ones. Unsplash and Foter help tell your story.
With Unsplash you get access to a bank of 50,000+ free-to-use photos. No attribution is required.
If there's nothing suitable on Unsplash, Foter allows you to choose from a whopping 229 million images. Here's how: type in the search term and click Commercial Use. Next, click on your image. Then download whatever size image you want. Finally, cut and paste the picture attribution into your post.
#2: Compress Images to Improve Page Load Speed
The load speed of a page is a key ranking factor. Images are usually to blame for lengthy page loading times. That's where Compressor.io comes in. It will reduce image sizes by up to 90%, with no loss of quality.
Here's how: just drag and drop your image, watch it compress before your eyes, and then download it.
#3: Do More With Screenshots
If you write a lot of blog posts you'll need a reliable screenshot grabber to gather illustrative images. To save time, install Save to Google Drive and Awesome Screenshot.
Save to Google Drive is a super-speedy browser extension that helps you save web pages. Click the Google Drive icon in your browser extensions bar and it saves the entire web page to your Google Drive in seconds.
Alternatively, use Awesome Screenshot if you want to crop the page or annotate it. Click on the Awesome Screenshot extension and you'll get a drop-down where you can choose your options.
When you're done, save and store your screenshots in Awesome Screenshot and you can access them from anywhere.
#4: Research Competitor Web Traffic
When you're competing for a target audience, it's helpful to find out where a competitor's traffic comes from, what their referral sources are, or what their top organic and paid keywords are.
SimilarWeb is an unbelievable resource that can help you find this information.
The browser extension works best, but you can get the same stats from the SimilarWeb website, too.
#5: Run an SEO Audit
Want to do a basic SEO audit on your blog, but don't know where to start?
Screaming Frog SEO Spider Tool, a small desktop program that acts as a website crawler, will check your blog for broken links, title tags, duplicate pages, redirects, the length of all your meta descriptions, and more.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOzOffh9HIE
#6: Monitor Keyword Rankings
What's My SERP is a free tool that will track up to 25 keyword phrases across 20 domains for you and up to three competitors. You can even export the data after each report.
Just sign up, input your keyword phrases, and click Check All Keywords.
If you want enhanced features, try the multi-functional Monitor Backlinks. Its keyword ranking tool monitors up to 500 keywords, as well as those of your competitors.
#7: Optimize Posts and Pages for Search
Yoast SEO is a WordPress plugin that makes it easier for bloggers to optimize blog posts to rank on Google. Simply fill in the fields and tweak your entries until you get a green traffic light.
A useful feature for bloggers who use social media is the ability to set the title, description, and featured image for shares to top social networks.
#8: Search for Email Addresses by Domain
Are you doing influencer outreach? Do you pitch to journalists? This tool will find anyone's email address.
Email Hunter offers 150 searches with the free plan. For most people, that's plenty.
Type in the domain name of the company the person you want to contact works for. If a specific email address isn't located,

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Thu May 12 03:00:11 PDT 2016

Do you want to reach more mobile Facebook users?
Wondering how Canvas ads might help?
Facebook Canvas lets you create full-page, interactive mobile ads that work like landing pages for tablet and smartphone users.
In this article you'll discover how to create quality Facebook Canvas ads.
Listen to this article:
Why Facebook Canvas?
Facebook Canvas is a new tool for advertisers, built specifically for the mobile platform. Facebook users can scroll through Canvas ads to view photos, watch videos, and discover your company's story.
Canvas is free to use beyond the standard Facebook advertising costs, and its drag-and-drop interface requires no coding knowledge. The ads are fully immersive, so there's nothing else on the page vying for users' attention when they're scrolling through or clicking on the content in your ads.
And while interactive media is normally a concern because of loading times (long loading times drive people away in every corner of the web), Canvas ads load almost as soon as they're selected. This is because they're hosted on Facebook rather than redirected to an outside page. In fact, they can download up to 10 times faster than general mobile web pages.
Here are some ways you can use Facebook Canvas to maximize the impact of video ads for your business.
#1: Complement Videos With Text and Images
To use Canvas effectively, you need to take advantage of everything it has to offer. The tool allows you to share much of the same content you can post on your website, such as articles, photographs, videos, and even products.
You have the option to display photos in carousel format, which Facebook introduced last year. You can add up to five images with optional links in one Canvas ad. Facebook is slowly rolling out the ability to create a carousel of videos as well.
While there may be an emphasis on video in Canvas ads, you should also consider using other content options to better tell your company's story, highlight your products, and pique consumer interest. A genuinely compelling multimedia Canvas ad will capture attention and engage your audience, which can translate to increased web traffic, more conversions, and more sales.
You can also use your video content in a variety of ways. For example, you might create a video that highlights the core principles of your brand and then include a carousel of products. Alternatively, you might include a series of customer testimonials or behind-the-scenes highlights of your company. Tailor your video to your marketing goals, whether that's greater brand awareness or increased sales, to get the best results.
Kit and Ace used this video in a Canvas ad to bring awareness to their brand and get their line of all-day technical performance apparel in front of their target market.
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#2: Tell a Story With a Series of Video Clips
Facebook allows a maximum of 2 minutes of video for your canvas, but you can split up the video content however you want. One tactic is to use a series of 15- or 20-second clips, as in this social media campaign for Evan Williams' Bourbon.
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Not only are shorter clips more likely to hold your audience's attention than longer videos, but they also give you the freedom to explore different facets of your business or highlight individual customer experiences. This greater flexibility in storytelling allows you to truly guide your audience through the experience and direct them toward what you want them to see.
#3: Draw the Viewer in With Immersive Content
Videos let you harness the power of both visuals and words to tell your company's story. It's important, therefore, that you come across as genuine and sincere.
Design your videos (and your entire canvas) to elicit some sort of emotion, whether it's funny, heartfelt, or exciting, and then tailor your words to that goal. Keep your language simple, but emotional. Never use business jargon or buzzwords in your video ads.

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Sun Feb 28 03:00:03 PST 2016

Have you seen the new Facebook reactions?
Wondering how they'll affect your Facebook page?
Facebook reactions let Facebook users go beyond liking a post by allowing them to choose from six emojis that show different emotions.
In this article I'll explore how Facebook reactions work, and how your Facebook page can get the most from them.
Listen to this article:
Facebook Reactions for Fans
The new Facebook reactions work pretty easily for users. When users hover over a post's Like button in the Facebook news feed, a personal profile timeline, or a Facebook page timeline, they will be able to choose from one of the new six Facebook reactions.
Everyone can breathe a sigh of relief that Facebook reactions do not include a Dislike button. Hence, people cannot dislike your latest post (product, service, content, etc.). These reactions will simply allow expressions of like, love, laugh, wowed, saddened, or angered by your post.
The feature will work similarly for mobile users, but users will hold down the Like button instead of hovering over it.
Some mobile app users have noted that you must restart or update your app to get the new feature to work. Others have had to log out of their account and log back in again.
Facebook Reactions for Pages
From a Facebook page admin perspective, a few things will change. For starters, you'll see in your notifications that people are reacting to your posts instead of just liking them.
On the posts themselves, you'll see an array of icons representing the different reactions that people have left on the post. On older posts, you'll see the new icon that represents likes, and on newer posts, you'll see all of the newer icons representing the different reactions that people have. People can also go back to older posts and add new reactions.
You can click on the link to see the breakdown of which fans had specific reactions so you can see who likes, loves, and has other feelings about your post.
Since page posts are public, it's important to understand that everyone can see the breakdowns of Facebook reactions, including people who are not admins and not even fans of the page. This means that you can go to other pages and see the breakdowns of reactions on their posts as well.
This can be useful for competitor research as you can get a good feel for how people will react to specific types of content, status updates, and announcements – especially since you can get a quick summary of the reactions right at the top without having to scroll through the entire list.
Note that only Facebook page admins will see the Liked / Invite buttons. If you are not a page admin, you only see Add Friend / Follow buttons next to people's names.
So far, Facebook reactions only work on the Like button for the main posts themselves, but not on comments. So don't expect to react to comments anytime soon.
In terms of your Facebook page's Insights, you can see the full breakdown of reactions for each of your posts by finding the post and clicking on it.
There, you can see the full post details, including the new Facebook reactions counts.
From an Insights perspective, Facebook reactions do not count as negative feedback. In other words, an angry reaction isn't categorized in the same area as a Hide Post, Report as Spam, Hide All Post, or Unlike Page. Hence, any reaction can be considered a good one.
Now that you know how Facebook reactions work for your fans and for your page, here are some ways to get the most from them.
#1: Encourage Fans to Use Reactions
People love trying new things. Simply invite your fans to test out the new reactions on your page today. Not only will it teach your fans how to use this feature, but it will also boost your page's overall engagement and organic reach.
For example, I initially planned to boost my post to test Facebook reactions, but I ended up canceling the promotion.

by @ Social Media Marketing Podcast helps your business thrive with social media

Fri Mar 10 03:00:30 PST 2017

Do you have products to sell?
Have you tried using Facebook ads to promote your products?
To find out how to market products via Facebook, I interview Steve Chou.
More About This Show
The Social Media Marketing podcast is an on-demand talk radio show from Social Media Examiner. It's designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.
In this episode, I interview Steve Chou. Steve and his wife run an ecommerce site that sells handkerchiefs and linens at BumblebeeLinens.com. He's also host of the My Wife Quit Her Job podcast and the website MyWifeQuitHerJob.com, where he teaches people how to sell physical products online.
Steve explains which Facebook ad types he uses to sell his physical products.
You'll discover how Steve uses email and Facebook ads in tandem.
Share your feedback, read the show notes, and get the links mentioned in this episode below.
Listen Now
You can also subscribe via iTunes, RSS, or Stitcher.
Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show:
How to Use Facebook to Market Physical Products
Steve's Story
As Steve and his wife were preparing for their wedding, his wife wanted a nice handkerchief because she expected to cry during the service. After shopping around, they imported a bunch of handkerchiefs from Asia. After using only a few, Steve and his wife listed the rest on eBay, where they sold like hotcakes.
Later, when Steve's wife became pregnant with their first child, she wanted to quit her six-figure income job. They reconnected with the handkerchief vendor and opened their online store, Bumblebee Linens. At first, Steve worked as a microprocessor designer by day, and after the baby went to bed, Steve and his wife ran the business. It became such a success that they maintained their income even after his wife quit her job.
Steve explains that soon afterward, their friends began wanting to have kids and quit their jobs, and they kept asking Steve how to launch an ecommerce store. Instead of answering the same questions over and over again, Steve began blogging about his experiences running the store. That's how MyWifeQuitHerJob.com got started in 2009.
To generate sales in the early days, Steve used Google AdWords. His brother-in-law worked at Google in the AdWords division and showed Steve how to use it. Back in 2007, Steve generated a lot of sales via clicks that cost him about 10 to 15 cents.
Steve says online content also helped generate sales. They wrote articles to help brides and provide craft ideas for their products. After three to six months, the articles started ranking in search engines and sent traffic to their store, too.
Today, Bumblebee Linens sells handkerchiefs, linen napkins, linen towels, lace parasols, aprons, and more. Steve says the store has several target audiences. The handkerchief audience includes people planning weddings and an over-55 crowd. Event and wedding planners are the target audience for napkins and moms are the audience for Mommy & Me aprons. The company has in-house embroidery machines for personalizing their products.
Listen to the show to learn more about the audience and the content on MyWifeQuitHerJob.com.
Win-back Campaigns
Steve explains that a win-back campaign targets people who have already purchased from your shop because those people are more likely to buy again. To run this type of campaign, you need to figure out who those people are, and if they haven't purchased within a certain timeframe, give them an incentive to come back.
You can automate a win-back campaign with an online merchant system. For example, if someone hasn't purchased from Bumblebee Linens in 60 days, they automatically receive an email and a Facebook ad with a 10%-off coupon.
To automate the Facebook component of the campaign, Steve says the ecommerce system Klaviyo allows Bumblebee Linens to export a specific segment (in this case people who haven...

by Max Goldberg @ SEO Optimizers

Wed Mar 15 10:07:57 PDT 2017

Search engines like Google use many thousands of different signals to determine which websites rank highest for each keyword. There are many ways to get your website to rank higher. For example, it’s common for search engine optimization specialists to focus on optimization tactics like building high quality links, or making sure the right keyword…

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Wed Aug 05 03:00:38 PDT 2015

Want to increase the size of your Facebook community?
Want to avoid costly Facebook ads?
When you develop relationships with others in your niche and experts, your Facebook page can easily grow without advertising.
In this article you'll discover three ways to grow your Facebook fan base without ads.
Listen to this article:
#1: Guest Curate for Other Pages
Curating content for other pages is a great way to network with other people in your industry, while increasing your own visibility and reach.
Choose 5 to 10 successful Facebook pages run by companies offering services complementary to yours, since they share your target audience. Your expertise will offer real value to their fans. Then offer to curate content for them once a week in return for credit on their page.
For example, the CEO of a company was a speaker at a marketing and advertising course, which spent a lot of money promoting its own Facebook page. Every week on "Mobile Wednesday," this CEO would be the guest curator on the course's page, and share interesting articles on the topic.
At the end of each update there was a shout-out: "Posts today are curated by OnTheMob." They also included a link to the company's Facebook page. The result of this simple technique was a few thousand new Facebook likes a month.
To get started, simply send each of your targeted Facebook pages a message offering to curate content under a specific category for them once a week. You can even do this once or twice a month. However, the more exposure, the quicker the results. The pages you approach should appreciate the opportunity to mix up their content and take some of the pressure off from posting.
Remember, the pages you reach out to need to be complementary, not competition. Any direct competitors likely won't allow you to use their Facebook page to promote yourself.
#2: Seek Out Promotional Swaps
Search for and list about 30 to 40 Facebook pages for products, services or communities that are complementary to yours. As above, these complementary pages likely share your target audience and have roughly the same number of fans.
Here's the Excel spreadsheet template I use to track partnerships.
Once you have a good list, send each page a message, explaining a bit about yourself and your Facebook status (such as page likes and engagement). Offer to mention their Facebook page to your fans on a Facebook update if they mention yours in return.
Here is a sample intro message to adapt for your promotional outreach.
Hi (Name of page admin),
How are you?
My name is (your name) and I'm (name of brand)'s Facebook page manager. I'd love for you to consider a promotional partnership with our page. I think we can both benefit.
Our company's Facebook page targets mostly (target audience including: gender, age, occupation, interest), and we post mostly content about (type of content you post).
We have (number of fans) with decent engagement rates. You can check our page out here (URL of your Facebook page).
It looks like we target a similar audience with different products.
Would you consider doing a promo swap between our pages? You would mention us to your fans and we'll mention you. That way we can both get some fresh likes from real people in our target audience.
Please let me know if this seems interesting to you. Send me a message so we can clarify the rest of the details.
Thanks for your consideration.
Best,
(Your Name)
Once you reach an agreement, share your cross-promotional posts. Track results so you know which partners are good to work with in the future.
I first heard about this technique from Neil Patel on a content hackathon. He praised this technique as the one he used to grow his Facebook page for his new experiment, Nutritious Living. Using this concept, pages have received great initial results: 1,200 new likes in less than two weeks.
Note: For this concept to work,

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Tue Jul 14 03:00:00 PDT 2015

Are you using Facebook to acquire customers for your small business?
Do you struggle to measure the return on your social media marketing investment?
Despite a lack of concrete proof of sales, small businesses are devoting time and dollars to Facebook marketing.
In this article you'll discover findings from recent studies focused on Facebook marketing.
Listen to this article:
#1: Most Small Businesses Don't See a Return From Their Social Media Efforts
In April 2015, small business directory Manta surveyed 540 small business owners for their insights on social media return on investment (ROI). Fifty-nine percent report that they did not see ROI from their social media activities. Because the vast majority of small businesses puts most, if not the entire, social media budget into Facebook, this article focuses on that channel.
Of the remaining 41% reporting that they did see returns, 17% received less than $100, and 57% received less than $1,000 for their energy and budget. One-third of that 41% (63 individuals) report outearning their social media marketing spend by more than $2,000.
Social Media Examiner's 2015 Social Media Marketing Industry Report findings echo those in the Manta study. When the team asked 3,720 marketers whether their Facebook marketing is effective (which we can interpret as driving return to some extent), only 45% reported that it is. (Read here about how 60% of the respondents for the report were small business owners or executives. They either worked in companies with 2 to 10 employees or self-identified as solopreneurs.)
The report also reveals that just 33% of the self-employed described Facebook marketing efforts as effective. Larger businesses have a slightly higher regard for their Facebook marketing efforts, with 50% pleased with their Facebook returns. B2C marketers also have a more positive take than B2B, with 51% of B2C marketers finding Facebook effective, compared to just 36% of B2B respondents.
Key Takeaways: The significant 35% of respondents who are uncertain about whether their Facebook presence helps their business is telling. With barely enough time to keep up their Facebook page, small businesses typically lack the time and resources to gather the data needed to determine whether their Facebook efforts work.
Gathering data requires that either the business owner or staff member learns or understands Google Analytics and Facebook Insights. Both of these tools require time and effort.
Further, as Facebook's former Global Head of SMB Marketing Chris Luo explains in his March 2015 Fast Company article, effective Facebook advertising is moving away from the simple updates and boosting that small businesses could master easily:
"Facebook has also introduced new, more sophisticated, advertising tools to directly target any user on Facebook in their newsfeed, but for the most part, these tools are used by savvy direct marketers at mid-sized or larger companies and not small businesses."
#2: Small Businesses Are Reluctant to Invest Money in Social Media
Small business owners are indicating their suspicion of social media marketing with their dollars. The Manta study mentioned above found that 47% of respondents invest less than $100 per month, and 40% spend between $100 and $1,000 monthly.
Low spending numbers like these are surprising, given the hype Facebook marketing receives in the media. In a seeming contradiction, a recent poll of 547 small- and medium-sized business owners conducted by BIA/Kelsey and reported in The Wall Street Journal claims that social media marketing gets the majority of small businesses' ad budgets at 21.4% of total dollars. Further investigation, however, reveals that small businesses don't spend very much on marketing at all.
A January 2015 BrightLocal survey of 736 small businesses revealed that 70% spend $500 or less per month on marketing. Fifty percent spend less than $300 per month.

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Thu Feb 25 02:00:31 PST 2016

Is curated content part of your social media marketing?
Looking for new ways to collect and share curated content?
New tools are changing the way marketers compile and deliver handpicked content to their social media audiences.
In this article you'll discover four unique ways to curate social media content on Medium, Twitter, SlideShare, and your blog.
Listen to this article:
#1: Select Stories on Medium
Medium is a great platform for marketers because it allows you to distribute content quickly. You can write long-form articles, short pieces and tweets, and upload videos to share with the Medium community. When you publish articles, they're shared with your followers and a network-wide feed where people find content based on tags and the amount of engagement posts receive.
Medium also offers a content-curation opportunity that many people overlook. You can create your own publication and curate articles from authors around the web.
To create a publication, go to the Publications page and click New Publication. From there, fill in the details for your publication and design the layout. You can choose the layout style (Grid, Stream, or List) and how many stories to include on the homepage.
To curate content, search Medium for articles that are aligned with your publication's message. If your publication is about satire, for example, research "satire" and look for relevant posts.
Once you find an article that you want to republish, scroll to the bottom of the story and click the ellipsis icon. Then select Request Story from the drop-down menu and choose the publication you want to publish it to.
Once you've selected the publication, you'll see a request email to send to the story's author. If the original author decides to let you use the story, they will submit it to your publication. You'll receive an email from the author, and can click through to the story.
From there, click on Edit at the top of the page then click on the Publish button. Now the story is added to your publication.
#2: Collect Tweets on Twitter
Some of the most popular Twitter accounts don't necessarily share their own content. They seek out the best articles, videos, pictures, and stories related to a specific topic and share them with followers.
To curate content on Twitter, you can share links or curate tweets from others. The first approach is the most popular. You find links to content online and share them as tweets on your account.
The second approach is to use Twitter's Curator platform. With this tool, you type in a few keywords, hashtags, or individual users and Twitter will deliver the most relevant or engaging content in a real-time stream.
Once you've identified content you want to curate, you can publish your curated content directly to Twitter.
#3: Clip Slides on SlideShare
SlideShare recently rolled out their Clipping tool, which lets you clip and save the best slides from presentations to view or share later. It's a great way to keep curated content organized by topic so you can deliver only the best insights.
To get started, sign in to SlideShare and click My Clipboards in the SlideShare navigation bar.
On the next page, click Create a Clipboard.
Now enter a name and brief description for your clipboard and choose whether to make it public or private. Your clipboard name should be related to the story you're going to tell with your slide collection.
Once you've saved your new clipboard, it's time to find slides to add. When you're browsing SlideShare and find a slide that you want to save, hover over the top-right corner of the slide and click Clip slide.
The slide is then added to your clipboard.
Once you're satisfied with the content you've curated, you'll want to organize your content to tell the story in a compelling way. Include some of your own slides in the clipboard to achieve some of your objectives.

by Sherice Jacob @ The Kissmetrics Marketing Blog

Mon Aug 14 11:05:14 PDT 2017

It’s hard to imagine going anywhere without your mobile device these days. From kids tethered to their phones, to grandmas Facetiming with their grandkids, our smartphones have become as much a part of our lives as our opposing thumbs. But just how do companies get those opposing thumbs tapping when you’re not in store, checking […]

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Thu Nov 12 03:00:02 PST 2015

Do you struggle to keep track of your social media content?
Are you looking for tools to help?
Creating a social media content calendar doesn't need to be complicated or require a whole new platform.
In this article you'll find four ways to build a social media content calendar with tools you may already use.
Why Use a Social Media Calendar
Individuals and businesses use social media for community engagement, content promotion, customer support, promoting the latest offers and more.
Managing many moving parts involves multiple people, multiple strategies, and if not handled correctly, multiple problems.
Listen to this article:
When you keep all of your social media content plans in a central location, you let everyone know what everyone else is doing, they can see the latest changes and updates and can plan their own content accordingly.
Use your calendar to track a variety of items, including publish date and time, post text, attached link, image or images, post type (image, link, text, etc.), campaign and post category or goal (engagement, content promotion, etc.).
Once you've determined what to add to your calendar, it's time to create it. Here's how.
#1: List It in Google Sheets
Since Google Drive is a staple for many businesses, calendars managed in Google Sheets are familiar and accessible. It's easy for anyone comfortable with spreadsheets to use. Plus, when you implement such a familiar tool, you can dive right into planning.
The collaboration features prevent confusion over outdated versions. Furthermore, the spreadsheet can be even more useful if your scheduling tool allows bulk uploading via CSV.
To set up your calendar, either start with a "blank page" or search for social media calendar templates online. If you want, add a tab for each social network to keep everything separate.
Even when you use a template, you still want to customize it a bit. Add all of the info your team needs to know, and leave out whatever they don't. For instance, if it's important to track who's responsible for each update, add a column for that. If most of your posts don't have links, delete that column.
Keep in mind, not all information needs to be written out in the spreadsheet. Use color-coding, team member initials and other shortcuts to further organize the calendar.
#2: Map It in Google Calendar
Google Calendar, which a lot of people use already, has a slightly more rigid structure. However, nothing beats an actual calendar for keeping track of due dates and responsibilities.
Keep all of your social content laid out in an actual calendar view. Those who prefer a list format are able to switch to agenda view.
Create different calendars for each team member, client or social network to make it easy to segment your content. That way you'll get a calendar view of not just what's being posted, but who's responsible for it or what content category it falls under.
Decide how you want to set up your calendar system (I color-code them either by network or content type), and create your multiple calendars. Then create an event for each post.
Organize the details as you'd like. For example, use the location field to note who's writing which post. Then use the description for compiling additional details such as post link once it's published.
#3: Visualize It in Trello
Trello, which is organized by boards, lists and cards, is a tool a lot of people already use for brainstorming and collaboration.
Like spreadsheets, Trello is flexible enough for anything. However, it looks and feels the opposite of a spreadsheet. If you're a visual person, or if you like organizing your content by progress stage, try Trello.
When you first set up your Trello social media calendar, decide how to organize it. Make lists for different progress stages, social networks or marketing campaigns.
Trello also has a calendar view for due dates, which makes it possible to build a plan with t...

by Jarno Wuorisalo @ Cuutio SEO Tool

Thu Aug 29 23:57:22 PDT 2013

SEO or search engine optimization is important for all websites. However, the SEO campaign depends on the industry you are in and your target audience. So, when you execute SEO for affiliates, you need to keep certain very crucial elements in mind. SEO and Affiliate Marketing – 4 Things to Keep in Mind Original […]

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Wed Jun 01 03:00:44 PDT 2016

Have you considered running a Pinterest contest?
Looking for tools to help?
Pinterest contests can increase your followers, boost engagement, and promote your brand and products.
In this article, you'll discover how to easily host and manage a winning contest on Pinterest.
Listen to this article:
#1: Choose a Contest Management Tool
Pinterest contests can be challenging to run, simply because they're hard to keep up with. Fortunately, Pinterest contest apps can make the process significantly easier. Some apps will even create landing pages to capture valuable lead information (like email addresses and phone numbers) that users otherwise wouldn't likely submit on a social media platform.
If you're going to host a Pinterest contest, here are three apps you may want to try.
Wishpond
Wishpond has a user-friendly interface and features a lot of great tools for customizing your contest to fit your needs. Wishpond's contest app allows you to create "entry galleries" where other users can vote on their favorite pins or boards that have been entered into the contest. Users can do this by submitting their email addresses, providing an additional way to capture lead information.
Other features allow you to choose customizable landing page templates, add a countdown to your landing page to increase urgency (and entries), and access analytics to see views, conversions, and conversion rates.
You can also share entry forms on Facebook and Twitter. The landing page is designed to be both desktop- and mobile-friendly. You can preview the landing page and entry forms while creating them.
The Wishpond contest app features the ability to have two different periods (or sections) of the contest: one period allows entries and another only allows voting on the entries.
Wishpond offers a free trial, so you can see if the software is right for you. The basic plan, which includes social promotions, starts at $45 per month.
PromoJam
PromoJam's Pin-It-to-Win-It promotions app makes it easy to run a Pinterest contest. It can take as little as 10 minutes to get your contest up and running.
With PromoJam's Pinterest contest app, you can create an SEO-optimized URL for your landing page. Choose from a variety of stunning and fully customizable landing page templates. This landing page converts into a confirmation page once users have submitted their entry.
Other PromoJam features include the ability to share customized QR codes for your contest, view analytics and user entries as the contest progresses, add social plugin buttons (like a Facebook like option) to your campaign, and use a random winner selection tool.
To use PromoJam's Pinterest contest app, you need to upgrade to the pro plan, which costs $249.99 a month, and allows you to collect up to 10,000 user submissions.
Woobox
Woobox is another amazing contest app that's used by brands like Fisher-Price, Crayola, and Shopify.
Woobox's Pinterest contest features let you collect email addresses, allow unlimited entries or only one per user, create tabs for Facebook pages, create HTML entry forms, add an age restriction, and require users to follow you to enter (users must follow you on Pinterest for contest eligibility).
Woobox has a free plan and trial, so you can get a feel for the interface before you purchase. To access all of the social promotion apps continually, including the Pin to Win app, you'll need to upgrade to a paid plan. The basic plan starts at $30 per month.
#2: Pick a Contest Type
At a first glance, it seems like the easiest way to host a Pinterest contest would be to ask users to repin a specific pin. That would be easy to track and easy for users to participate.
However, it's not a valid option. You're not allowed to ask users to pin one specific pin. Here are some other options to consider.
Require Pinners to Use a Specific Hashtag

by @ Social Media Marketing Podcast helps your business thrive with social media

Fri Nov 01 03:00:27 PDT 2013

Do you have a Facebook marketing plan?
Are you wondering how to grow your business with Facebook?
To learn about the important elements of a Facebook marketing plan, I interview Amy Porterfield for this episode of the Social Media Marketing podcast.
More About This Show
The Social Media Marketing podcast is a show from Social Media Examiner.
It's designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.
The show format is on-demand talk radio (also known as podcasting).
In this episode, I interview Amy Porterfield, co-author of Facebook Marketing All-in-One for Dummies and host of the Online Marketing Made Easy podcast. She was also the very first Facebook community manager we ever had for Social Media Examiner.
Amy shares what your Facebook marketing plan needs to succeed.
You'll learn why you should create a Facebook business page and the best engagement techniques to grow your audience.
Share your feedback, read the show notes and get the links mentioned in this episode below!
Listen Now
You can also subscribe via iTunes, RSS, or Stitcher.
Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show:
Facebook Marketing Plan
The benefits of a Facebook business page
Amy states that although a lot of people get good engagement on their personal Facebook profile, she strongly recommends that you set up a Facebook business page. It's only on rare occasions that she advises to stick with your personal profile.
If you have a physical or online product, program or service, a Facebook business page can be extremely beneficial. This type of page gives you permission to talk about your business on a regular basis.
Once you have the foundation in place and become that go-to authority in your niche, you can talk about your business freely. It's the main reason why you need to have a business page, as well as a personal profile.
You'll hear about another benefit when it comes to Facebook ads.
Listen to the show to discover the reason why Amy has taken all communication over to her business page but still keeps her personal profile.
Start with a Facebook marketing plan
Amy teaches how to put a Facebook marketing plan together in three phases.
Attraction
Promotion
Sales
Listen to the show to learn more about these three phases.
1. Attraction
First of all, you need to build a Facebook community. It's important to grow a solid fan base so you can generate some great engagement with people. You become the go-to source in your community.
In the attraction phase, you need to find different ways to grow your fan base. You need to know your audience.
You'll hear why Amy advises creating a persona of your typical Facebook fan.
One of the easiest ways to get the word out about your page is to have a Facebook Like button on your website. Once someone clicks the Like button to become a fan, they will remain on your website.
You'll get quality fans with the Like button, because these people are already visiting your site. You want them to become Facebook fans, so you can stay top of mind when they're on Facebook.
Listen to the show to hear what happened when Amy advised Michael Hyatt to install the Like button on his website.
How to use your website or blog to grow a following
Amy explains that it doesn't matter if you have a massive email subscriber list, these are people who have taken the time to give you their name and email address. You'll learn about techniques you can use to encourage people to become fans.
If you want to attract new people, then Graph Search is very valuable. Amy says it's a hidden treasure that not many people use. You'll hear some great examples of search terms that will help you gain valuable information about your audience.
When it comes to promotion, you need to turn your fans into leads. You definitely want to check out this previous podcast with Amy that goes into...

by Victor Victories @ Web Hosting Blog from eUKhost

Mon Jun 12 01:25:37 PDT 2017

For many businesses, Google AdWords is a vital marketing tool. It’s a pay-per-click advertising platform that helps drive targeted traffic to your website. When advertising campaigns are set up and optimised correctly, they can boost your online sales dramatically. In this post, we’ll take a look at how to use Google AdWords effectively. 1. …

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Wed Sep 16 03:00:59 PDT 2015

Is your business on Facebook and Twitter?
Have you considered sharing news with your audience?
Research indicates that people are using Facebook and Twitter for more than connecting with friends and brands. They're now looking to these platforms for updates on current events.
In this article you'll discover how the way people use Facebook and Twitter is shifting, and how brands can respond.
Listen to this article:
#1: More People Get Their News From Facebook and Twitter
A July 2015 study from Pew Research Center reveals that increasing numbers of Twitter and Facebook users visit the platforms to get news. Of the over 2,000 study participants, 63% now depend on both channels for updates on national events and political issues, big leaps from 2013 numbers.
Twitter, which was more news-oriented from the beginning, didn't have as dramatic a leap: 52% to 63% during the two-year period. Those reporting they use Facebook for news, on the other hand, grew from 47% in 2013 to 63% in 2015, or 16%. While the opportunity to stay abreast of friends and family events gets users on Facebook initially, it's news (sports, science, technology, business and entertainment) that keeps them there.
As the chart below shows, Facebook's user numbers didn't budge from 2013 to 2014. Despite the inevitable slowdown, today 71% of Internet users have a Facebook account, and 70% of those go to the site daily. Forty-five percent go there several times a day. By following friends, brands, organizations and news outlets, Facebook (and Twitter) users have created their own customized newspapers. They seem to like their new handiwork.
While Twitter's audience numbers made an impressive 28% leap from 2013 to 2014, the platform's failure to gain the ubiquity of Facebook has disappointed many. Twitter remains hard at work creating a niche for live-tweeting events, television shows and sports, but it hasn't shown much promise for the retailers who pay for ads.
Key takeaway: As Facebook and Twitter mature, their audience growth rates are leveling off. Younger audiences abandoned Facebook for Instagram, but baby boomers, Gen Xers and mature holdouts finally claimed their profiles. Brands should align their marketing content with current events to engage users.
#2: Twitter Is the Go-to Platform for Breaking News
The Pew Research Center image at the beginning of this article reveals another interesting fact: Even though most Twitter users tweet just once or a few times a week (far less often than Facebook users engage), if there is a nationwide crisis, exciting sports game, gaffe by a politician or a celebrity scandal, they flock to Twitter.
Numbers for those who report they follow breaking news on Twitter (59%) are nearly double those who say they do so on Facebook (31%). Twitter is the go-to destination for up-to-the-minute news and comments on that news.
Twitter is also the channel where sports fans and news junkies engage by sharing their opinions.
Users do more than just read the headlines, they engage. As the graphic above shows, more than half of users tweet at least once about news each week. Also, while the majority of accounts that Twitter users follow are friends and family, the majority of tweets in their news feeds come from news outlets and journalists.
In the image below, you can see that while just 14% of the accounts Twitter users follow are news outlets, 33% of the tweets in their Twitter feed are from these outlets. Breaking it down further, the most popular news outlets are sports (with 35% of Twitter news followers receiving sports tweets), business/science/technology (14% getting news on these topics) and civic and political (12%).
Keep in mind that in this study, the final sample providing Twitter data was small. Pew drew from its original group of 3,212 respondents only those who self-identified as Twitter users, provided their Twitter handles for analysis and had valid publi...

by Sales @ Kosmos Central

Mon Dec 29 13:49:27 PST 2014

Data breaches will continue to rise. The increasing number of hackers breaching private data is in the foremost thoughts of every business and consumer today. From millions of credit cards and personal records stolen at Target, Staples, Home Depot, and TJX Retail Stores to private pictures ‘Snaps’ you thought were secure as previously advertised from […]

by @ Social Media Marketing Podcast helps your business thrive with social media

Fri Nov 25 03:00:44 PST 2016

Is your business on Instagram?
Do you want to use Instagram as a revenue stream?
To find out how to use Instagram for sales, I interview Jasmine Star.
More About This Show
The Social Media Marketing podcast is an on-demand talk radio show from Social Media Examiner. It's designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.
In this episode, I interview Jasmine Star, a professional photographer who specializes in Instagram marketing. Her story starts with law school, transitions over to photography, and ultimately goes to Instagram. Jasmine is sure to inspire you with ways to sell with Instagram.
Jasmine shares how to sell your products and services via Instagram.
You'll discover the advantages of using Instagram for selling.
Share your feedback, read the show notes, and get the links mentioned in this episode below.
Listen Now
You can also subscribe via iTunes, RSS, or Stitcher.
Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show:
How to Sell on Instagram
Jasmine's Story
In 2005, Jasmine was in her first year of law school at UCLA when she got the news that her mother's brain cancer was in the final stages. She left school and moved home.
Jasmine knew she didn't want to go back to law school and decided to give photography a try. For Christmas, her husband gave her her first digital camera and she started her wedding photography business. When her business exploded that first year, it helped her identify as an entrepreneur.
Jasmine joined Instagram six years ago but says she used it haphazardly until just a few years ago. When she learned how to use Instagram strategically as a marketing vehicle for her business, it was a game-changer. Since then, she's been named one of the top 10 wedding photographers and one of the most influential photographers, which she believes is due to her varied and intentional use of Instagram and other social media platforms.
Listen to the show to discover more of Jasmine's backstory and why she believes she was called to live a passionate life.
Why Instagram Works for Selling
Jasmine shares one of her favorite quotes from author Simon Sinek, "People don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it." In her opinion, there's no better platform than Instagram to showcase why you do something.
She believes Instagram's powerful storytelling components give you the ability to make customers loyal before a purchase has been made. If you can tell a powerful story in fewer than 87 characters (the caption limit), along with a photo that matches and elevates the storytelling component, you'll win at Instagram.
Listen to the show to learn what Jasmine says makes Instagram different from other platforms.
How to Get Seen on Instagram
It's no secret that people are seeing the effects of the Instagram algorithm on their visibility in the news feed, and that's why Jasmine says it's more important to build an audience of the right kind of followers than to collect followers just to increase your numbers.
Visibility in the news feed comes from having engaged followers who care about your business, leave comments and likes, tag their friends, and share your posts. An account with a lot of followers who aren't engaged won't be indexed high by the algorithm. This results in fewer people seeing that account's posts, which then results in fewer people liking and commenting.
So, all things being equal, if one account has 200 followers and another has 2,000 followers, and each account routinely gets 20 likes and two comments, the account with fewer followers is more likely to be seen, because it's perceived as more relevant.
To build an audience of the right followers, Jasmine suggests creating an ideal client profile. Figure out where your ideal client is on Instagram and why, she says. Then figure out how to serve the people who follow you. Creating value will nurture and grow your audience,...

by @ Social Media Marketing Podcast helps your business thrive with social media

Fri Jul 29 03:00:19 PDT 2016

Do you review your Twitter Analytics?
Want to use them to improve your Twitter marketing?
Ian Cleary is with us to explore what you can learn from the data provided in Twitter Analytics.
More About This Show
The Social Media Marketing podcast is an on-demand talk radio show from Social Media Examiner. It's designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.
In this episode, I interview Ian Cleary, a social tech expert. His blog, RazorSocial.com, placed in our Top 10 Social Media Blogs four years in a row. He also founded the RazorBlazers Club, a community for marketers who want to monetize with social media.
Ian explores how you can use Twitter Analytics to take your Twitter marketing to the next level.
You'll discover great third-party analytics tools.
Share your feedback, read the show notes, and get the links mentioned in this episode below.
Listen Now
You can also subscribe via iTunes, RSS, or Stitcher.
Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show:
Twitter Analytics
Core Twitter Analytics on the Home Tab
Ian explains that once your account is 14 days old, you can access the free analytics provided by Twitter by going to Analytics.Twitter.com on your desktop. You'll start off with an overview on the Home tab, from which you can drill down to view data on tweets, audiences, video analytics, and more.
On the Overview screen, you'll see the total number of impressions for all of your tweets. Impressions are the actual number of people who saw your tweets on their Twitter timeline, by visiting your profile, or in a search. For instance, they may have clicked on a hashtag and your tweet was listed.
Ian wonders whether Twitter is able to access all of the information for tweets displayed in third-party tools (Hootsuite, Sprout Social, etc.). He goes on to say that even though the data is never going to be 100% accurate, it will give you a gauge to see if your impressions are going up or down each month.
Profile Visits is the total number of people who visited your profile on mobile and desktop combined. This number is important, Ian explains, because when you pin a really good tweet to the top of your Twitter profile, you have an idea of how many people have seen it.
For example, if Ian's profile shows 17,000 visits, that means 17,000 people have seen his pinned tweet, which is an opt-in to download a lead generation guide. He uses this tweet to build email subscribers from people visiting his Twitter profile. It's a simple thing, but it's the equivalent of having a big opt-in at the top of your website.
Mentions show how often your Twitter username is mentioned on other people's profiles. For example, the number of people who shared your content and mentioned your Twitter name will show up there.
While they're not clickable, the mountain graphs you see under each data label give you an idea of whether that data set is increasing or decreasing at a glance. For example, you can see if your impressions are going up or down over the course of the month. Or you can check the Followers graph to see if your audience is growing or diminishing.
The Top Tweet section of the Overview screen shows you your best tweet over the last 28 days and the number of impressions and retweets on it. Ian explains that you want to see what your most popular tweets are, so you can turn them into evergreen tweets to share regularly. There's no point in retweeting content that's not resonating with your audience.
The Top Mention section shows you when someone else shared a piece of your content and mentioned your name, and it did really well. The Top Follower is your follower who is followed by the most people. If someone with a large following has followed you, and he or she is relevant to your audience, pay attention to and start interacting with that person, Ian suggests.

by @ Social Media Marketing Podcast helps your business thrive with social media

Fri Nov 20 03:00:31 PST 2015

Do you post videos on YouTube?
Want to know what makes a video ad successful?
To discover how YouTube video ads work, I interview Derral Eves.
More About This Show
The Social Media Marketing podcast is an on-demand talk radio show from Social Media Examiner. It's designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.
In this episode I interview Derral Eves, an expert in YouTube and video marketing. He's YouTube-certified in Audience Growth, AdWords, Google Analytics and Video Advertising. He's helped big and small businesses bring in more than 1 billion views collectively.
Derral will explore YouTube ads and what marketers need to know.
You'll discover the formula for creating great video ads.
Share your feedback, read the show notes and get the links mentioned in this episode below.
Listen Now
You can also subscribe via iTunes, RSS, or Stitcher.
Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show:
YouTube Ads
How Derral got into YouTube
In 2006, Derral was doing a lot of search engine optimization work with local businesses when he found their videos ranked easily on Google (this is back when Google had Google Video). Late in 2006, Google purchased YouTube and it became a lot easier to find something on YouTube through Google. Derral realized it was a great way for small shops to share their message and get easy ranking and visibility.
Derral shares how a video that cost $99 to make in 2006 received over 385,000 views on YouTube and has sold more couches for a furniture store than any of their other advertising.
A couple of years ago, Derral started doing his own videos to help clients get answers to common questions. He created a plan of execution, tried to figure out the best trending videos to make and so on. His goal was to get 10,000 subscribers and a million views in that first year. He reached his goal in three months. In six months, he was number-one for training on how to use YouTube on YouTube.
Today, Derral consults with and helps businesses, brands and YouTube channels get exposure, develop an audience and monetize.
Listen to the show to discover what originally led Derral to YouTube.
Why create video ads?
Because video ads convert at a very high level, Derral believes video marketing is a great way to deliver, engage and excite. He says video is powerful if it's done right, but can be negative if it's done wrong.
Derral talks about working on the video ad for the Squatty Potty, which appeared on Shark Tank. As of this recording, the video has 43 million combined video views from Facebook, YouTube and some freebooted video.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbYWhdLO43Q
Although Derral found that Facebook video is good for branding and engagement, he says the video got better conversions with YouTube.
Listen to the show to discover the benefit of Facebook video versus YouTube.
The process for making video ads
Derral says you need to start by determining what you want to accomplish with your video ad. He cautions that if you have 80, 10 or even 3 things you want to accomplish, then it's never going to work. You need narrow it down to one reason to make the ad. Then everything else will benefit from it.
When you know what success looks like, you work backwards to get someone to take the desired action at the end of your video. Derral says you have a short amount of time to accomplish this and walks listeners through the steps he uses to build YouTube video ads: capture attention, talk about the problem and offer a solution.
He believes that if you do this correctly, you can repeat it several times throughout the video and you can keep your audience engaged throughout the process. For example, even though the Squatty Potty video is long (2:54 minutes), the audience retention was high and over 80% of the people who click on it watch the whole ad.

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Wed Dec 09 03:00:21 PST 2015

Are your YouTube views falling?
Do you need to rank higher in YouTube search results?
Understanding how you can take advantage of YouTube's algorithm will help your channel and videos be seen by more people.
In this article you'll discover how to make your video rank higher in YouTube search results.
Listen to this article:
#1: Align Content Development With Viewer Searches
To get a leg up on your YouTube competition (which may be targeting irrelevant topics or subjects), find the exact words and phrases people use to search for content like yours on YouTube.
You can use both free tools (like Keyword Tool and YouTube Trends) and paid tools (VideoCents and vidIQ, for example), to get insights into what people are searching for on YouTube.
The paid tools give a bit more data, but their true value comes from providing a sense of how hard it is to rank for specific terms. Here's an example of some inline keyword insights on the word 'vine' from VidIQ.
You're looking to find the sweet spot, where a keyword is getting a good number of searches but isn't overly competitive. What constitutes a good number of searches will vary by industry or market.
After you've identified the best keywords, you can use them when creating and publishing your content.
Create Videos People Search For
Hank Green's SciShow searched for the most asked questions about science and created an entire series of videos to answer them. This tactic earned the channel millions of views across the series.
Optimize Your Video for How Viewers Search
For all its power, YouTube still finds it difficult to read video content, so you need to tell the platform exactly what your video is about. You do this through the video's meta data.
If you use your keywords strategically (without spamming), you'll be much more likely to rank for your chosen keywords, as YouTube knows that your video is related to these terms. Include your keywords in the video title (as close to the start as possible), the description, tags and transcript file (the script should contain targeted keywords).
Check out this example, which ranks #2 for the search term "video marketing." The keyword is visible in the title and description.
You'll also find the keyword in the tags.
It's even included in the subtitles.
With strategic keyword optimization like this, it's no surprise that this video ranks so high for such a competitive keyword.
#2: Maximize Video Watch Time
Watch time is YouTube's most important ranking factor. It's a simple fact: If you don't have strong watch times, your videos will be demoted in search. Remember that it's all about what percentage of the video is watched, not just total minutes (though it's best to increase both).
Michael Stevens of Vsauce is successful at getting his YouTube audience to stick around. Even though his videos are over 10 minutes long, they routinely log hundreds of thousands of views.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2jkV4BsN6U
He gets straight to the point in answering the title question, and uses his personality and intelligence to pique people's curiosity again, steering the conversation to a different but related topic. Take a cue from Michael and consider removing long intros and outros.
Get people to watch more of your video, and YouTube knows that you're providing value to those viewers. YouTube will reward you by suggesting the video to more people and ranking the video higher in search.
#3: Drive Longer Channel Sessions
This may seem like a no-brainer, but try to get people to watch more than just one of your videos. All channels want this of course, but not all of them actively encourage viewers to watch more videos. This tactic has more benefits than meet the eye.
If your channel consistently starts people off on long YouTube sessions (even if they go off and watch videos on other channels), your channel will be rewarded by YouTube's algorithm,

1) Implement Title Tags and Meta Tags Title Tags are an important aspect of search engine optimization as they are the way to convey your marketing skills to your target audience. The wording should flow smoothly

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Tue Nov 10 03:00:09 PST 2015

Have you tried Facebook video ads?
Looking for better ways to connect with your Facebook audience?
Small adjustments to the way you design and target your Facebook video ads can increase your engagement and conversions.
In this article you'll discover seven tips to improve your Facebook video ads.
Listen to this article:
#1: Tailor to Audience Preferences
Rather than create content that targets a wide audience, focus on creating videos that target a specific audience segment. These videos are more likely to get clicks to your website, shares, comments and likes.
For example, if your website offers several services or products, create a video for one specific product or service rather than your business in general. General videos are good for branding but not for businesses focused on direct response.
You can use Facebook Audience Insights to find out who your audience is, if you aren't sure already.
To access Audience Insights, log into your Facebook Ads account, click Tools and select Audience Insights from the drop-down menu.
Choose the audience you want to know more about (for example, people who like your page). Analyze people who like your page, people in a remarketing list and people who are in an email list you uploaded to Facebook. Based on the data you collect about your target group, you'll get a clearer idea of the type of video to create.
In the bottom left, select your Facebook page to see information on that page.
From here you can explore demographics, such as age, gender, lifestyle, relationship status, education level and job title. You'll also see page likes (what pages your audience likes), where your target audience is located, how active they are on Facebook, composition of their household and more.
Combine the data on each tab, and you can create a full target audience profile. For example, households with an income of $250K+ are more likely to buy luxury items, and households with many family members are more likely to purchase in bulk.
#2: Capture Attention Quickly
Successful videos get to the point right away. You need to catch the attention of your audience in the first 5 seconds. Here are a few ways to achieve this goal:
Grab attention with a catchy start, like in this Friskies "Dear Kitten" ad.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4Sn91t1V4g
Tell people that you can solve their specific need.
Hint at what you're going to talk about.
Most videos are muted unless the user clicks on the audio button. This means that you need to complement the audio with a supporting visual so the first 5 seconds help you achieve good performance.
Keep in mind, too, that Facebook is a social platform, so viewers are likely to skip videos that are too commercial.
#3: Create Ads That Don't Look Like Ads
When users visit Facebook, they're typically taking a break or finding out what their friends are up to. They're not surfing to buy.
To attract the attention of Facebook users, your ad needs to deliver its message through something unusual such as insightful information, funny content or news. This isn't easy to do, but it's the best way to create videos that achieve your goals.
Depending on where your ad appears, what customers consider valuable will differ. Always' #LikeAGirl Campaign does a great job of appealing to their target audience: women.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjJQBjWYDTs
#4: Keep Runtime and the Message in Mind
Lengthy videos aren't as effective as shorter ones because people are more likely to stop watching them. Many online advertisers recommend that you create videos that are about 30 seconds long.
If your video is particularly entertaining and builds value for users, you might be able to go up to 2 minutes long. There are a few cases where long videos might work. For example, users already know your brand and like your content. Also, if the video is useful or entertaining,

by Rank Fuse @ Rank Fuse Interactive

Tue Dec 08 08:26:53 PST 2015

The most common keyword practice utilized by SEO experts is to target long-tail search queries that are substantially less competitive, offer quicker ROI, and need fewer link tactics to achieve success. More importantly, selecting long-tail keywords will present a greater opportunity to gain more visitors to your site. When choosing to optimize for long tail keywords, the […]

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Thu Jul 23 03:00:58 PDT 2015

Want long-term customers for your business?
Have you used social media to increase customer loyalty?
To build customer loyalty, you need to show your customers you care.
In this article I'll share how to use social media to embrace and cultivate loyal customers for your business.
Listen to this article:
#1: Personalize the Fan Experience
The key to encouraging more customer loyalty on social media is to make your fans feel like they matter. Whether you have 1,000 or 10,000 fans, each one should feel special.
A simple way to take a personal approach on a daily basis is to sign off on posts and comments with your name. Another method is to literally personalize your product or service for fans.
Coca-Cola fans can personalize and share a virtual bottle of Coke and Heinz ran a promotion that gave their fans and customers the opportunity to add a friend's name to a soup can and send it to him or her.
When you personalize your fans' experience, it boosts their trust and loyalty. It also gives them a chance to take full ownership of and share the experience with their network.
#2: Offer Rewards
Show your fans and customers you appreciate their input on your social channels by offering a reward. A lot of companies miss out on the opportunity to create more loyal customers, because they only reward customers who engage the most.
While there's nothing wrong with rewarding regular engagement from fans, the key to appreciating your social media community as a whole is to reward fans based on the quality of the interaction, not the quantity. Remember, a fan who comments once, but leaves very detailed feedback (for example, a testimonial, suggestions or visual post), is just as valuable as someone who comments 40 times on posts.
Involve and reward your entire social media community with offers, such as unique discounts, contests and bonus or sneak previews.
GoEnnounce gave away exclusive "Welcome to College" gifts to the first 50 high school seniors who posted a photo with their college acceptance letters.
When you reward all fans and customers, it gives everyone a reason to keep coming back to your page. It also shows your company appreciates both new and existing customers.
#3: Surprise Fans and Customers
Add to your customers' experience on social media by finding ways to create surprise and intrigue.
One option is to surprise fans with a random act of kindness. For example, reward your community with a discount code when you reach 20,000 fans. Also, send fans who go above and beyond in adding value to your company, product or service a handwritten note and gift.
When a young fan submitted a dragon drawing to Samsung to impress the brand, the company not only replied back with a great drawing of a kangaroo on a unicycle, but also took things one step further. Samsung sent the fan a Samsung phone, which included a case customized with the dragon drawing. Now that's what you call a surprise!
Companies can also send fans a surprise on special occasions, such as after their first purchase, the one-year anniversary of their first purchase, their birthday or on seasonal holidays.
Surprises are a great way to build word-of-mouth marketing. They also encourage brand advocacy, because fans who get a treat are likely to share the experience with their network.
Remember, since social media conversations happen in real time, when you decide to surprise your fans, be sure to deliver the treat within a reasonable time frame.
#4: Listen to Your Customers
Build loyalty with your fans and customers and increase engagement by listening. Monitor daily what your customers and fans are saying about your company, whether it's a question, concern or problem, and then engage with your fans, respond and take action.
Snapchat listened to their users, and as a result they created an update to make the app even easier to use.
Listening is so important on social media because ...

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Mon Jul 13 03:00:35 PDT 2015

Do you have a Facebook page for your local business?
Are you looking for ways to reach your customers on Facebook?
Because your audience is naturally limited by the area you serve, local marketing on Facebook can be challenging.
In this article you'll discover nine ways to use Facebook to get more local exposure for your business.
Listen to this article:
#1: Use Local Videos and Images
Facebook native video is more visible and gets more reach in the news feed, so it's a good idea to have a Facebook video strategy for your local business.
Really tailor your videos to appeal to local users. Add a fun video about a local event, share a quick tip or even cross-promote another business. Your video doesn't have to be professionally done to get results. This local video about elk in Estes Park received over 220,000 views, and led to at least one direct booking.
Local images are also very shareable. If your business doesn't have regular images to post, take pictures occasionally when you're out and about in your town to share in the future.
When your local clients recognize the area, they're more likely to visit your page and your business.
#2: Feature Your Customers and Fans
Share photos of happy customers on your Facebook business page. Personal photos help your visibility with the friends of your customers. Encourage people to tag themselves in your photos.
Remember, a page cannot tag a fan unless the admin is a personal friend of that person. Only people can tag other people or people can tag themselves.
Also, thank your customers from time to time. Post an image and tell your community how much you appreciate them.
When you have a post such as a photograph that people can easily like, you increase your chances of being seen by those people in the future, because they have already interacted with your page.
#3: Collaborate With Other Local Businesses
One of the best ways to connect with your community is through other local pages. Interact regularly as your page with other local pages: share their posts, tag them, comment on their posts and show them a little love. This will make you more visible to their audience.
A side benefit of promoting other pages in your community is they're likely to promote you too. Create a formal cross-promotion plan or just give other pages a shout-out from time to time to create goodwill.
#4: Use Reviews
Social proof and recommendations can benefit your business in a major way, so use the Reviews capability on Facebook for your local business. Reviews show up prominently on mobile phones especially.
To enable reviews, make sure you set Local Business as your category and have a physical address. You also need to check the Show Map box on the About tab. For further details, see #6 of our Frequently Asked Facebook Questions post.
Be sure to respond to all reviews (good and bad). If you have negative reviews, try to correct the issue. You may even want to consider giving your best customers a little incentive to leave a (hopefully positive) review about your product or service.
#5: Build Your Email List
One thing that many local businesses don't do often enough is build their email list. Once you have a list, you're able to email your customers to promote something new, share a contest and so on.
Like with reviews, offer something good as an incentive to get people to opt into your list.
#6: Create Local Awareness Ads
Reach people who are near your business with a local awareness ad, either because they live nearby or because they’re in your area with their mobile device.
Create a different call to action, such as Get Directions, for each ad. A local awareness ad is also the perfect way to attract someone to your business for the first time with a coupon.
#7: Join Local Groups
If your business focuses on B2B, then a networking group could be a great place to reach other business owners,

by bosmolskate @ SEO Optimizers

Thu Jun 09 10:30:04 PDT 2016

It can be a lucrative investment making a video to promote your product or service, but the real value is getting the video proper exposure to your target audience so people are aware that the video exists. It is easy enough to create a video and post it on YouTube or Vimeo, but that will…

by David @ RightNow Communications

Wed Aug 03 11:22:21 PDT 2016

There are hundreds of factors that contribute to the formula of ranking in the search engines and the overall quality score of your website. The optimization of the images on your website is not necessarily at the top of the SEO list, but is considered to be on the list of “best practices.” Optimizing media […]

by Mahum Ali @ Twinword, Inc.

Thu Jul 06 01:40:56 PDT 2017

Are you new to search engine optimization and don’t really know where to start? I’m going to tell you my top 10 basic SEO tips for beginners. There are other topics that affect SEO, but I am only going to cover the most important ones here. 1. Keywords Keywords are topics that […]

by @ Social Media Marketing Podcast helps your business thrive with social media

Fri May 22 03:00:37 PDT 2015

Are you wondering how to stand out in the noisy online world?
Want to build your status as a thought leader?
To discover new ways how to stand out, I interview Dorie Clark.
More About This Show
The Social Media Marketing podcast is an on-demand talk radio show from Social Media Examiner. It's designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.
In this episode I interview Dorie Clark, author of Reinventing You and an adjunct professor at Duke University. She's also a consultant and speaker. Her clients include Google and Microsoft. Her latest book is called Stand Out: How to Find Your Breakthrough Idea and Build a Following Around It.
In this episode Dorie will explore how to stand out in the noisy online world.
You'll discover why creating breakthrough ideas and becoming an expert are essential today.
Share your feedback, read the show notes and get the links mentioned in this episode below.
Listen Now
You can also subscribe via iTunes, RSS, or Stitcher. How to subscribe/review on iPhone.
Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show:
Stand Out
Dorie's backstory
Dorie started her marketing and strategy consulting business nine years ago, following a pretty eclectic career. After studying theology in graduate school, Dorie was a political reporter, a spokesperson for first a gubernatorial and then a presidential campaign, and ran a non-profit.
Through her journey, Dorie noticed increasing numbers of people reinventing themselves, so she wrote Reinventing You to capture best practices for the process. She then realized the next challenge (after you find the place to make your mark) is to become a recognized expert.
She wanted to learn from the best, so Dorie interviewed 50 top thought leaders, including Seth Godin, Daniel Pink and David Allen, to try to figure out how they came up with their breakthrough ideas and built their following.
Dorie wanted to demolish the myth that famous people are perceived as having always been famous. There are certain replicable actions that anyone can do with the right strategy.
One common thread is that all of the people she profiled are known for their ideas. The idea comes first, and then these people roll up their sleeves and work in the trenches in their profession to spread their ideas.
Mindset is a key factor in whether someone will be successful. Dorie refers to Carol Dweck from Stanford University, who talks about a growth mindset versus a fixed mindset. If you have a growth mindset and you're not getting the results you want, you believe if you change what you're doing, you'll get those results. If you have a fixed mindset and you're not getting the results you want, you think it must be because you're not smart or talented enough, and there's nothing you can do to change it.
Sharing ideas puts you in a position of vulnerability, because it's possible people won't like them. However, it's fundamentally an act of generosity if you have ideas you believe can help the world.
People need to step up and be willing to share their ideas, because those who are doing it now are no different than anyone else. They are just willing to do something differently.
Listen to the show to learn more about what stops most people from becoming successful.
Why create a breakthrough idea?
A breakthrough idea is something new and valuable that you (and often only you) can contribute, Dorie explains. This is more important than ever, because the world we live in today is so competitive and globalized. There is always going to be someone willing to do the work for less money than you.
Ten years ago, if you needed a website designed, you went to the Chamber of Commerce mixer to see who does websites, and you picked a designer. Now, you go on Elance or Odesk and find someone who will do it for half the price around the world. As a result,

by @ Social Media Marketing Podcast helps your business thrive with social media

Fri Nov 11 03:00:08 PST 2016

Do you broadcast on Facebook Live?
Want to discover how to use your videos to create more content?
To explore why Facebook Live is a path to success for creators, I interview Chalene Johnson.
More About This Show
The Social Media Marketing podcast is an on-demand talk radio show from Social Media Examiner. It's designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.
In this episode, I interview Chalene Johnson, a lifestyle expert, author of Push, and host of two top podcasts: Build Your Tribe and The Chalene Show. She's also active on Facebook with 1 million fans and regularly uses Facebook Live.
Chalene shares how she uses Facebook Live.
You'll discover what she does to leverage the content she captures.
Share your feedback, read the show notes, and get the links mentioned in this episode below.
Listen Now
You can also subscribe via iTunes, RSS, or Stitcher.
Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show:
Facebook Live
Chalene's Background With Video
While Chalene has developed a number of businesses, most people associate her with fitness and a program called Turbo Kick that she created for fitness instructors to teach in health clubs.
Instructional videos were part of the program and when a cast member fell ill, Chalene was forced to be on camera. Since that time, she's done many videos and discovered the more she relaxed, the better she could connect with her audience, whether it was for fitness or business.
Chalene first broadcast live on Periscope in the summer of 2015. She remembers it well because it was also the day she was hacked. Chalene stresses there's no correlation between the two events. You can listen to Episode 158 of this podcast for the backstory.
When she got early access to Facebook Live, Chalene went live and applied what she'd learned on Periscope. Her first Live reached a half-million people within 20 minutes and she knew it was a game-changer.
Listen to the show to discover Chalene's philosophy on the importance of doing things that are scary.
What Facebook Live Is All About
Chalene believes Facebook Live is like TV, meaning you can use it to spread your message, become famous, or have a reality TV show.
Mike and Chalene discuss the connection between bloggers becoming paid authors, musicians on YouTube becoming paid recording artists, and the likelihood that a future show host will be discovered through Live video.
Listen to the show to hear why podcasters should consider live-streaming video.
How Chalene Goes Live
Chalene and her team have an organic plan in place for her Live videos. The calendar is set around the promotion of the Virtual Business Academy, the Marketing Impact Academy, and Smart Success. Eighty percent of the content for each Live broadcast relates to the upcoming promotion, so it attracts the people interested in the related product. Currently, she's promoting Smart Success.
Chalene aims to go live a couple of times each week. She's noticed that the longer she broadcasts, the better the video does in terms of reach and live viewers. Often, she plans to go live for 15 minutes but ends up broadcasting for an hour.
Chalene's Live prep starts when she wakes up at 5:45 AM. She spends the first hour of her day in learning mode focusing on a certain topic. She then finds a way to relate what she's studying to the product she's promoting.
For example, since she's studying the neuroscience behind behavior, discipline, and habits, she'll do a Live broadcast about developing good habits, which ties into her promotion of Smart Success. To prepare, Chalene writes down a proposed title, five bulleted discussion points, and any research or stats she wants to reference.
She describes how to start a broadcast and in which order to share information.
In the first 10 seconds, tell people what you're talking about and why they need to stay tuned.

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Thu Aug 06 03:00:34 PDT 2015

Are you a busy social media marketer?
Do you want better tools and tips to simplify your job?
Looking for ways to increase your visibility or productivity?
In this article you’ll discover the best tips and tools shared on the Social Media Marketing podcast so far this year.
Listen to this article:
#1: The Great Suspender
If you use Google Chrome a lot and jump from tab to tab, you'll notice it can hog resources from your system. The Great Suspender is a Google Chrome extension that keeps some of those tabs from running; it suspends them.
Activate the extension and you can set it up with different variables. For example, you can set it to suspend your tabs after 20 seconds, you can specify to not suspend pinned tabs or set it to auto-suspend if you're on battery. (It's kind of like TripMode, discussed in a previous podcast, that manages which programs use your data when you're connected to WiFi.)
You can also set it to auto-unsuspend tabs or require a click to unsuspend.
The Great Suspender is a free Google Chrome plugin.
#2: Goofy App
Goofy, an unofficial Facebook Messenger client for Mac, lets you use Facebook Messenger without having to go to Facebook.
Using the app, you can message people on Facebook without getting into the time suck that is Facebook when you have other things to do.
Keep the app in the dock. Then when you need to send a message, just open it up. It’s much less distracting than going into Facebook on desktop or checking it on your phone.
Goofy is a free app.
#3: TripMode
TripMode is a Mac laptop tool that will give you freedom to decide which apps are able to connect to the Internet using the data on a mobile device. Perfect for when you sync your iPhone to your laptop and use it as a mobile hotspot.
After you install TripMode, an icon will appear in the menu bar that allows you to choose to launch TripMode automatically when you connect to a mobile hotspot or turn TripMode on manually. You can also see data usage for each app and manage them individually. For example, you can check or uncheck Dropbox, Google Chrome, Mail, etc.
TripMode offers free and paid versions.
#4: Soovle.com
Soovle.com is a great tool to use when you're looking for interesting keywords to use in your blog posts or advertising. It's also an excellent way to see how different search results look across social channels and search engines.
Go to Soovle, type in a phrase or keyword and you'll see what comes up on Google, YouTube, Bing, Yahoo!, Wikipedia, Answers.com, eBay, Weather Channel, Netflix and more.
For example, I entered "native video." On Google, I got native video advertising examples, native video and native video advertising. On YouTube, I got Native American music and Native American flute. On Yahoo!, I got Native Americans and on Bing I got Native foods.
Soovle is a free service.
#5: HiddenMe
HiddenMe is a Mac tool that will hide all of the icons on your desktop when you launch it.
If you're about to do a screenshare or a presentation, instead of putting everything on your desktop away, you can hide it. It's the equivalent of throwing everything in the closet when you have guests coming over.
HiddenMe is a free app.
#6: Noisli
Noisli is more than a white noise generator, it's a sound environment creator available through your web browser or the iOS app.
When you need to cancel out the noise in a loud location or add noise to a quiet one, Noisli lets you choose from a variety of sounds such as rain, white noise, different oscillating fans, café sounds, library sounds and more.
You can even use a single sound or a combination, and change sound environments whenever you want. Now you won't feel like you're sitting in your office all day when you're working on your projects.
Noisli is a free service.
#7: Facebook Paper
If you don't want to install Messenger for whatever reason,

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Wed Mar 02 03:00:19 PST 2016

Do you want to be a recognized expert in your industry?
Looking for relevant conversations to weigh in on?
Using Twitter's Advanced Search to monitor keywords and conversations can help you connect with influencers and uncover opportunities for thought leadership.
In this article you'll discover six ways to use Twitter's Advanced Search to increase your influence in your industry.
Listen to this article:
#1: Find Conversations to Participate In
Doing a keyword search on Twitter is a quick and easy way to find out what people in your industry are talking about, identify accounts to follow, and discover new business opportunities.
With Twitter's Advanced Search, you can create complex searches with keywords that are relevant to your industry.
To start, choose three or four keywords that are relevant to your industry and use the Boolean search operator "OR" to create a single search for all of your terms. For example, search for "digital marketing" OR "digital marketing advice."
Look at the search results to find conversations in your niche. Then join relevant discussions to offer expert advice and build meaningful connections with people in your industry.
Use the OR operator to ensure that every key phrase or search term is relevant to your mission. Keep this list updated and weed out the keywords that aren't helping you find the best results. Soon you'll have a filtered list of conversations to review on a daily basis.
You can also add keywords like "recommend" to find prospects looking for services you offer.
You can also use a keyword search to optimize your own Twitter profile. Add keywords to your bio to help other users find you. Including key phrases (such as "public speaker" and "charity worker") may help you uncover new opportunities.
#2: Monitor Hashtags for Media Opportunities
You can follow specific hashtags and keywords to discover people who are looking for thoughtful comments or quotes.
For example, the hashtag #journorequest is popular among journalists and industry writers. You can create an advanced search that pairs both #journorequest and your key industry terms ("skincare expert" or "facial expert," for example) to find opportunities for free coverage in print and online.
Once you've uncovered opportunities through hashtag monitoring, reach out to users to share your expert insights. This helps you get media coverage for your business and create meaningful connections.
#3: Connect and Converse With Industry Peers
Your influence is often measured by the network you keep. Use Twitter's Advanced Search filters to find key contacts and people to follow in your industry.
Filter Results by Account
In Twitter's search box, search for a keyword (or group of keywords). Then to filter your results, click More Options and select Accounts to see only those accounts that contain your keywords.
Once you create a tailored list of key industry contacts, follow those users, add them to a list, or use a monitoring tool like TweetDeck to track what they're saying.
Filter Results by People You Follow
You can also limit your search to only the users you follow. To do this, enter your search term (for example, "social media data"). Then filter your results by clicking More Options and selecting From People I Follow.
Your search results will only include tweets that match your search query and are from the accounts you follow.
Filter Results by Date
You can add a date range to find conversations relevant to your topics of interest and occurring within the last few weeks from users you follow.
This gives you the opportunity to add comments, share your insights, and show thought leadership within your online peer group.
Filter Results by People
You can also use Twitter search to find previous conversations you've had with your contacts. This is a great way to revive relationships and build camaraderie.

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Tue Mar 08 02:00:27 PST 2016

Are you wondering how to use Instagram for business?
Have you looked at how others are using it?
With the right tactics, Instagram can help you build awareness, boost engagement, and drive foot traffic to your business.
In this article you'll discover four ways you can use Instagram to promote your products and services.
Listen to this article:
#1: Increase Web Traffic With an Instagram Contest
Instagram contests let you showcase your products, attract leads, and grow your followers all at the same time. Plus, contests are just plain fun.
Framebridge held an Instagram giveaway contest that offered a chance to win a floral painting by one of their spotlight artists. Framebridge used their contest to drive traffic back to the blog.
You can adopt this tactic for your own business by announcing your contest on Instagram and sending Instagram users to your online store's blog for a chance to win.
If you want to run an Instagram contest for your business, you can simply offer a free product to celebrate a particular company milestone. If the milestone is Instagram-related, all the better! You'll promote customer loyalty and gain free publicity when fans tag their friends.
#2: Inform Your Story With Video
Video can complement the photos in your Instagram account by telling stories through moving animation. According to a Vidyard report, 71% of marketers say video conversion rates outperform other types of marketing content.
Instagram lets you record videos that are between 3 and 15 seconds long, which is more than enough time to grab the attention of your prospects and customers. Plus, adding a few videos to your Instagram stream will provide some variety in your imagery.
http://www.instagram.com/p/BBsdIPNmUOV/
French retailer L'Occitane successfully complements their Instagram images with short videos. The video above shows a flower slowly opening until it presumably releases its wonderful fragrance, which ties in with the company's cosmetic products.
You can record your own short Instagram video to complement the images you post. Simply tap the middle icon in the row of icons at the bottom of the Instagram app. This opens up your photo and video capabilities. Once open, tap on the Video tab and click the red button to begin recording your clip.
#3: Jumpstart Interest With Instagram Ads
You see sponsored ads from businesses all over Instagram. They allow you to put your products or services in front of the specific audience you want to reach. In other words, you can target a customer demographic beyond just your current Instagram followers.
When you use Instagram ads to show your products in action, you help viewers understand how they can use your products. This is the same concept used by ecommerce stores when they show high-quality images of people using their products to give customers a sense of what they're buying.
Notepad+, a productivity app optimized for the iPad Pro, uses Instagram sponsored ads to promote the app. The centerpiece of this ad is a photo of the app on an actual iPad Pro. This gives customers and prospects an immediate visual sense of the app's interface in use.
The good news is that businesses of all sizes can now create and run Instagram ads. All you need to start is a Facebook page. Then during the ad setup process, you'll set a budget for your ad, select a target audience, and create the ad content. For a step-by-step walkthrough, check out this article about how to create an Instagram ad with Facebook Ads Manager.
#4: Drive Foot Traffic With Appealing Photos
Instagram users respond to beautiful, captivating, and creative photos. Strong images can help you boost engagement, and if you're a local business, they can drive customers to your location. On your Instagram account, you want to post photos that show your products in the best possible light.
German restaurant Muse Berlin has grown its local customer base through Instagram by po...

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Wed Jun 08 03:00:33 PDT 2016

Looking for new ways to increase your Snapchat visibility?
Have you thought about using Snapchat geofilters?
When applied creatively, Snapchat geofilters can help you increase brand awareness, engage your community, and reach new audiences.
In this article, you'll discover five unique ways to use Snapchat geofilters for business.
Listen to this article:
Why Geofilters?
Snapchat's rise has been meteoric. Over 100 million users watch 10 billion video clips daily. The platform has transformed video storytelling, and its native tools have incredible social media marketing value. Now, you can create your own specific geofilters and use them to advertise to your audience.
Snapchat geofilters are the perfect way to harness your audience's attention, because they're already digesting your content. Geofilters make it easier for your audience to engage and promote your product or brand organically.
Here are some ways to use Snapchat geofilters for your business.
#1: Announce New Product Launches
When launching a new product, you want to encourage your community to find out more about it and ultimately make a purchase. By using a Snapchat geofilter, you're showing your audience that your products are important and worthy of branded filters. You're also adding a marketing element that connects the audience emotionally to the brand.
Everlane's Elevate Summer used branded geofilters for its summer collection. The company also partnered with magazine editors for Snapchat takeovers.
On the Everlane Snapchat account, the editors gave their opinions on collection favorites. With this approach, you can showcase the importance of a new product line and give real-time insights to your community on what products to check out.
When you want to catch the eye of your audience for new products, create a Snapchat geofilter.
#2: Share Company Culture
To promote company culture and your business offerings, you can create a Snapchat geofilter for your office. Employees could become your biggest digital advocates as they use the geofilter to share with their communities. You can encourage employees to share behind-the-scenes events at your company or interview colleagues about their favorite parts of their job.
This one-to-many sharing can impact your company in a positive way and your reach will be exponential. Sharing your company's strengths to a larger audience will encourage top talent to want to join the team.
For Partner Day, HubSpot created a special geofilter using their signature orange hue. Employees and partners used the geofilter to highlight the best moments of the day. To encourage sharing, design a geofilter as a digital name tag that will allow users to insert text about who they are and what they do.
Empower your employees to engage on Snapchat with a branded geofilter. It will help boost company morale and audience reach.
#3: Promote Charity Events
Using geofilters for live events creates an inclusive element that bonds the community. For charity events, they can help build awareness for a cause.
Creating Snapchat geofilters for events will add an element of surprise and delight for your guests and will allow people to share the event in real time. They can also increase visibility and messaging in a fun and effective way.
Imprint.City, a non-profit focusing on cultivating community through art, hosted a masquerade charity event to raise awareness. Because the attendees were already going to use social media at the event, organizers created a Snapchat filter to make the event more digitally accessible. Many community influencers used the filter, which helped spread the word about the organization and its cause.
You can also use the snaps taken by your guests for future marketing materials. Promote them on other social networks or in pamphlets for fundraising efforts.
#4: Support Your Presence at Trade Shows
Getting prospects to your booth at trade shows can be a str...

by @ Social Media Marketing Podcast helps your business thrive with social media

Fri Nov 27 03:00:27 PST 2015

Do people review your business online?
Ever receive negative or fraudulent reviews?
To discover what to do when you receive a review that's not what you were expecting, I interview Dan Lemin.
More About This Show
The Social Media Marketing podcast is an on-demand talk radio show from Social Media Examiner. It's designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.
In this episode I interview Daniel Lemin, the founder of One Good Brand. He is also a strategist for Convince & Convert, and author of the brand-new book, Manipurated.
Dan will explore online reviews and how to deal with bad and fraudulent reviews.
You'll discover why online reviews are so important.
Share your feedback, read the show notes and get the links mentioned in this episode below.
Listen Now
You can also subscribe via iTunes, RSS, or Stitcher.
Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show:
Online Reviews
Dan's backstory
Dan started his online career with Google's corporate marketing team and saw the emergence of black hat SEO (search engine optimization). He explains the distinction between white hat (good) and black hat (bad) SEO, and talks about link farms as an example of black hat tactics.
Google came to love Yelp's fresh content and Dan says that's how the rating and review platforms attracted shadowy SEO characters. They saw the opportunity to continue "tricking" consumers through new platforms.
Listen to the show to discover why the owners of small- and medium-sized businesses need to know the dynamics of the SEO industry.
Why reviews are important
Dan shares that nearly 90% of consumers say they trust reviews as much as they trust their friends and family. Since so many people make decisions based on online reviews, the vast majority of a business's prospective customers are filtering through review sites.
Since Google favors this type of content, reviews are a new SEO tactic, and that's why site owners are adding some type of rating and review component. For instance, a lot of hospitality businesses like Starwood Hotels have added reviews to their websites.
He says one review will not necessarily make or break a business, but cautions that the presence of the review industry can make or break small businesses, because they don't have all the tools and techniques a large company like Chipotle might have.
When asked which review sites matter most, Dan explains his research found it really depends on the business category. For example, Gondola Adventures in Newport Beach, which is in a super-specialized industry, says Yelp matters, but TripAdvisor is even more important.
Dan says companies can track reviews manually by going to each review site, but it's very time-consuming. To help, there's a whole cottage industry of companies such as ReviewTrackers and ReviewPush that do review tracking for businesses.
Listen to the show to learn how much traffic Yelp gets from Google.
The purpose of fake reviews
Dan shares that there are different layers to the purpose of fake reviews.
He first discusses fake positive reviews and says that several weeks ago, Amazon filed an unprecedented lawsuit against 1,100 people. They accused anonymous people on Fiverr of selling reviews for profit on Amazon.
For his book, Dan interviewed a young lady who writes reviews for a living, and says it's very difficult to distinguish her reviews from legitimate ones.
Dan discusses fake reviews that are created to injure the reputation of a business. Dan also shares an example of another type of fake review, a scam that targeted wedding photographers in the Bay Area.
After responding to what looked like a legitimate inquiry from their websites, the photographers would get an email saying "I decided not to hire you" or "we changed the date." The email would go on to say, "I work in the online reputation business,

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Mon Jun 20 03:00:33 PDT 2016

Looking for ways to use Facebook Live for business?
Interested in what's working for others?
Facebook Live broadcasts can help you expand your current audience and get new clients and customers.
In this article, you'll discover how three companies used Facebook Live to generate sales and how to adapt their tactics for your own business.
Listen to this article:
#1: Broadcast a Milestone Celebration
Results Fitness Santa Clarita decided to do a Facebook Live flash mob to celebrate their 16th anniversary. Although the culminating event seemed impromptu, weeks of planning went into it.
Here's how they did it.
Build Excitement With a Story
Fitness professionals and gym owners Rachel and Alwyn Cosgrove started the celebration by sharing their stories. To build up anticipation, they shared a different post (part 1, part 2, part 3, and part 4) on the first four days of anniversary week.
In preparation for any event, do whatever you can to make it personal. Build a genuine rapport with your audience and they'll be even more invested in what you have to say when you go live.
Plan the Event
While Rachel and Alwyn needed to get permits from the city (in addition to other requirements), your planning might be as simple as picking a date and planning the event.
They also started a secret Facebook group to coordinate. Fitness instructors, participants (gym members), and anyone involved with the flash mob itself were invited to the group. This made it easy to share practice times and other logistics.
Build Buzz With a Live Pre-party
To get their Facebook fans excited about the big surprise, Results Fitness broadcasted the pre-party. The owners, staff, and guests were interviewed live.
A behind-the-scenes pre-live can help you generate anticipation for a surprise event.
Broadcast Live
The Live flash mob went for 9 minutes and got 360 views.
With a performance Live such as this, in-the-moment interaction via comments is less likely. However, you could always stay on afterwards and engage with your audience.
Post the Highlights
Rachel and Alwyn created a 3-minute highlight reel from the flash mob and uploaded it after the fact. It received 400 views the day it posted.
Whether you post a sizzle reel, a clip, or the event in its entirety, do some form of follow-up. Thank those who attended and shared in your celebration, too.
Results: Because of the flash mob and all of the Facebook interaction surrounding it, memberships at Results Fitness increased. People loved the fun and wanted to become part of the culture of the gym.
#2: Stream an Online Sale
The Funky Fairy is an online store based in the United Kingdom that sells personalized, embroidered gifts for kids. Owner Vicki Stewart decided to do a sale via Facebook Live to liquidate the personalized items with kids' names in her overstock inventory. Here's the process:
Plan and Have a Sale
The Funky Fairy did three sales over four days. Each was a stand-alone Facebook Live that ran about 20 minutes. The first sale went so well, Vicki did a second (the first and second each had about 7,000 views) and then a third (which got about 10,000 views).
During the Live, Vicki chatted as she showed the names and available sale items and people would comment to request the names they wanted. If customers wanted an item she didn't have on sale, they were directed to the special order page.
To make the most of it, do a sale on Live as a limited-time or limited-inventory sale or series. Whether the reason is summer, weekend, or closeout, always give a credible purpose. Alternatively if you're a consultant without physical stock and you want to get more of a certain type of client on your roster, offer a limited number of coaching slots for people in that industry.
Another option is to limit a sale to only people who are commenting during the Live broadcast. You can then make a different offer available t...

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Mon Jul 13 02:00:49 PDT 2015

Do you want to expand your LinkedIn network?
Interested in ways to find and attract quality connections?
Growing your LinkedIn network helps establish you as an expert in your field and extends your reach and exposure.
In this article you'll discover eight ways to develop new LinkedIn connections.
Listen to this article:
Why a Large Network Matters
The number of connections you have on LinkedIn matters. Remember, the more first-degree connections you have, the more second- and third-degree connections you have, making you literally one connection away from millions of people.
That's important because LinkedIn is a massive search engine in which you'll only show up in your first-, second-, and third-degree connections' searches. In other words, if you're not connected with individuals at these levels, you won't come up in their search results. And only those three levels will show up in your searches.
So if you want to be found on LinkedIn, strategically build your number of first-degree connections. This will exponentially increase the likelihood that LinkedIn search algorithms will find you and place you near the top of search results.
In the left column below, you can see how the number of connections grows for each relationship level.
Keep in mind that you only need 501 connections to show the 500+ mark next to your profile and be considered part of the elite expert tier. People who see your profile will know you use LinkedIn to do business, add value and connect.
Here are some ways to start growing your LinkedIn network.
#1: Post Status Updates Daily
It's important to be active on LinkedIn, and that starts with posting status updates every day. Think of your LinkedIn updates the same way as any social media post. Make sure they add value, talk about your business and include a call to action.
When you consistently stay in the feeds of your connections, there's more opportunity for them to comment, like and share your posts. This interaction gets you introduced to their connections and gives you one more way to grow your network. When people are sharing and commenting on your stuff, it's social proof that you're an expert in your field.
#2: Engage With Your Connections' Updates
Review your wall regularly and share, comment on and like other people's updates and long-form posts.
Start relationships with new connections by commenting on their updates. Build an audience by joining the conversation on popular posts in your niche. This interaction lets people know you exist and gives you more visibility. Some of these people are likely to want to know more about you, leading to new connections.
#3: Personalize Connection Requests
Review LinkedIn's suggested connections at least a few times a week. Make it a goal to find people in your industry or niche and personally connect with them. Try to connect with two or three people each time.
When you send a connection request, personalize it in some way for that person. How did you meet? How do you know him or her? Why do you want to connect? Here's an example of a simple but personal connection request you can tweak and reuse.
Personalized connection requests increase the chances people will approve your request and give you a better shot at landing a sale.
#4: Add Your LinkedIn URL to Your Email Signature
Your LinkedIn profile works for you in a number of ways: as a resume, a testimonial, social proof, a portfolio of projects and clients and proof of expert value, all in one convenient place. In your email signature, rather than send prospects to your Facebook account (or nowhere at all), send people to your LinkedIn profile.
First, you need to grab your LinkedIn vanity URL, a clickable link that's easy to recognize and easy to remember. In the Contact Info section of your profile, click the gear icon next to your LinkedIn URL. Then on the next page, look for the Your Public Profile URL section,

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Wed Jul 06 03:00:00 PDT 2016

Do you want to add video to your social media marketing?
Looking for ways to increase video views and engagement?
In this article, you'll discover 26 ways to use video to improve your social media marketing.
Listen to this article:
#1: Experiment With Video Lengths
When it comes to the ideal video duration, a lot depends on the type of video you want to share with your audience. Testing different video lengths will give you an idea of what works best for you.
Before you get started shooting or editing your video, you should know the maximum video lengths per platform. These include:
Facebook: 120 minutes
Twitter recommends keeping videos under 30 seconds
Instagram: 60 seconds
Snapchat: 10 seconds
Vine: 6 seconds
Note: While you don't have to reach the maximum time length, you're not allowed to go over it. If you really want to get around the maximum video duration on social media platforms, you can post a link to a YouTube video, which will allow you to share longer content. Unfortunately, this doesn't work on Instagram, where you can't share links except in ad campaigns.
#2: Optimize for Autoplay
Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram offer Autoplay as a feature. When users scroll through their news feeds, your video automatically plays as it passes over their screen. This encourages users to watch your video, because it's already playing.
Feature movement within the first few frames to enhance the Autoplay feature and grab attention quickly.
There is a caveat, however. Users are more likely to turn off Autoplay on their mobile devices to reign in unwanted data charges. Alternatively, you can target longer video campaigns to desktop users and see if that increases your views and engagement overall.
Though Autoplay helps increase views when Facebook and Twitter users have it enabled, be careful not to count on it too much.
#3: Add Subtitles
Social media connects us with users whom we may not interact with otherwise, and brands that are as inclusive as possible will have the best results. Adding subtitles to your videos lets users watch them on their mobile devices even if they're in a place where they can't or don't want to play the accompanying sound (like a waiting room or a plane).
More importantly, adding video subtitles will allow those who are hearing-impaired to watch and get all of the information.
It's easy to add subtitles to your video from your computer with any video editing tools. You can also add subtitles to Facebook videos by uploading SRT files with your video.
#4: Broadcast Live
Facebook Live video lets businesses and users broadcast videos to their audiences in real time from their smartphones. You can see the number of users watching and users can comment on the video in real time. You can also address comments directly as the video plays.
One study found that viewers spend 3x more time watching live videos than videos that aren't broadcasting in real time.
Users automatically opt in to get notifications when someone they follow is "going live," which increases visibility. Once your live video is complete, you can save your live video to your timeline so users who missed it live can watch it later.
Periscope and Blab also provide platforms for live video sharing.
#5: Grab Attention Early
It's vital to grab your audience's attention within the first few seconds of your video. You need to capture viewers' interest within the first 10 seconds (or less) or they'll stop watching and move on to something else. This forces you to be concise and get right to the point. Vine's success with six-second videos proves it's possible to catch a user's interest in 10 seconds or less.
Within the first few seconds, the following video tells viewers what it'll be about, and offers a solution to a problem.
Hooks are an important part of capturing interest, because they explain why viewers should care or be interested.

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Wed Oct 14 03:00:16 PDT 2015

Is video part of your marketing mix?
Wondering if YouTube is still relevant?
In the past year YouTube has enjoyed a sudden surge of interest from both advertisers and young consumers, largely fueled by mobile-device use.
In this article you'll discover recent findings on how brands, consumers and marketers are using YouTube today.
Listen to this article:
#1: YouTube Video-Viewing Time Is Surging
A spring 2015 study from comScore and UBS (as reported in eMarketer) found that U.S. consumers increased their video-viewing time on YouTube by 17% over 2014. For a platform that's 10 years old, that's quite a leap.
The chart below shows that the biggest year-over-year gain came from mobile users, who increased time spent on YouTube's app by 31%. With desktop-viewing hours declining 30% in 2014 and 9% in 2015, clearly YouTube captured the mobile opportunity.
Google's own numbers also indicate a surge even greater than what was noted in the comScore/UBS report. In the search giant's Q2 July 2015 earnings call, CFO Ruth Porat reported that consumer watch time on YouTube had risen 60% from July 2014. That's the fastest growth YouTube has experienced in two years. Porat also shared that mobile watch time alone had doubled.
In the above chart Facebook's video usage increase of 852% in 2014 may impress, but remember that it started from almost nothing, so the multiple will be large. The bottom line remains that total time spent viewing video via YouTube amounts to 34 billion hours in 2015.
On the other hand, time spent consuming video via Facebook (at 14.3 billion hours) is less than half of YouTube's amount. Still, viewing video on Facebook only began rising in fall 2014, and there could be far greater upside as more consumers pick up the habit of viewing video via Facebook.
The article Facebook to Overtake YouTube: Five New Research Findings covers how in a 2014 survey of 180,000 videos across 20,000 Facebook pages, Socialbakers found that direct video uploads to Facebook were increasing rapidly. More content going up means more viewing time will result.
Key Takeaway: Because the biggest leap in viewer time spent on YouTube is from mobile devices, you have to credit the user-centric upgrades that YouTube made to its mobile app over the last two years. The authors of the eMarketer study YouTube Advertising: Why Google's Platform Will Stay on Top explain that the new mobile app redesign delivers only the most relevant and personalized content.
Further, YouTube instituted TrueView ads that allow users to skip ads at the beginning of videos within seconds. With the power to skip away from the ads, users feel more in control of the experience.
#2: Ad Revenue Is Expected to Keep Rising
With viewers rediscovering YouTube as a worthwhile channel to spend time on, it only makes sense that advertisers have followed them there.
A Look at the Numbers
The YouTube advertising study from eMarketer also predicts the platform will remain the top digital video player until 2017 and most likely beyond, despite Facebook's incursion into video.
YouTube is expected to earn $1.55 billion in advertising revenue in 2015, and that number should rise to $2 billion by 2017, according to the study's authors. This is still less than the approximately $4 billion Facebook made in ad revenue just in Q2 2015 (extrapolated to a potential $16 billion per year). But given the competition YouTube will encounter from Facebook and others, analysts are impressed with the $2 billion number.
In early 2015, digital video advertising agency Mixpo surveyed 125 U.S. agency, brand and publisher executives about plans to use video advertising on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and more. In 2014, 63% of the respondents ran video ads on Facebook, while 77.8% ran them on YouTube.
In 2015, these executives shifted their plans. Eighty-seven percent were planning to run a video ad on Facebook in the coming year,

by Guy Sheetrit @ Over The Top SEO

Thu Oct 27 05:20:53 PDT 2016

Competitor Analysis: How to Crib Off Your Competitors Competitor analysis has long been an integral part of SEO. In such a dynamic field that is prone to rapid change, it is an invaluable method of ensuring that your practices and processes have not fallen behind. Once you start ranking all your sites well, it’s all […]

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Tue Apr 12 03:00:45 PDT 2016

Are you looking for the newest social media tips and techniques?
Want to know how the experts are staying ahead of the social media marketing curve?
We asked top social media pros to share their favorite tips for getting the most out of social media.
In this article you'll discover 25 ways to improve your marketing and save time.
Listen to this article:
#1: Get Around the 140-Character Limit on Twitter
Yes, there are tools that save long-winded tweeters, but they really just add a link that takes the reader to a website, out of the stream. Here's a hack that lets you run long, while keeping your readers right there on Twitter. I learned this one from SMMW speaker Amy Schmittauer.
First, send a tweet as you normally would ... but end it with an ellipsis or a cliffhanger of some kind.
Next, reply to your own tweet! You can do this from your own stream. There's no need to leave the @mention of yourself in there. Remove it so you don't look like you're talking to yourself.
Now, visitors who see the first tweet (or either of them) in your stream can see the full length of the super-long tweet by clicking the View Conversation link. Here's what it will look like:
Voila! You've broken out of the 140-character jail. It's definitely a hack in the truest sense, but it works!
Andy Crestodina is co-founder of Orbit Media.
#2: See Restricted LinkedIn Profile Search Results
Ever look for people on LinkedIn, but the search results you see are restricted based on your membership level? Because the majority of profiles are indexed on Google, you can use the search engine to do a more comprehensive search.
For example, if you find that you can't access the full profile information of someone on LinkedIn, go to Google and type:
site:linkedin.com "name of person"
If you're looking for marketing managers who mention Dublin in their profile, you can type the following into Google:
site:linkedin.com//pub "marketing manager" Dublin
Now you can see much of the information LinkedIn's barriers hide from you.
Ian Cleary is the founder of RazorSocial.
#3: Accelerate Social Media Follower Growth
S4S (also known as Share for Share or Shoutout for Shoutout) is a tactic in which you form mutually beneficial partnerships with other influencers in your niche/market. Basically you post each other's content with a reference or tag to each person on an agreed-upon social media platform.
We used this social media hack and have gone from 0 to 400,000+ followers on Instagram in under a year.
It's great because the hack works on any social media platform: Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Periscope, you name it!
Nathan Chan is the publisher and editor of Foundr Magazine.
#4: Reduce Inflammatory Facebook Fan Posts and Comments
Because our Facebook page community can be rowdy, I add words commonly used to attack another fan or our Facebook page to a list of words in the Page Moderation section of Page Settings.
When a banned word is used in a comment, the comment is hidden from the general public, but appears to the person who left it and their friends.
I ban words like "unlike," "unliking," and "clickbait" as well as things like "!!," "!!!," and "!!!!" because I've found that no one ever uses multiple exclamation points to tell you how much they love you.
Holly Homer runs Kids Activities Blog and Quirky Momma Facebook page, and is the founder of Business 2 Blogger.
#5: Verify the Effectiveness of an Influencer
This is a very difficult time to be in marketing. Ad blockers are diminishing returns and overwhelming information density makes it hard for our message to be heard on Facebook, Twitter, and other channels.
This is one reason influence marketing is so important today. Even small companies and agencies need to tune into people who can effectively carry a message online to an engaged audience.
But how do you know if an influencer is influen...

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Tue Jan 05 02:00:21 PST 2016

Do you want to generate more leads?
Have you considered using social media quizzes to connect with prospects?
Quizzes are a great way to engage your audience, gather feedback and build your email list.
In this article you'll discover how to create social media quizzes that generate leads.
Listen to this article:
#1: Establish a Goal
A successful quiz needs a clear objective. What do you hope to accomplish? What do you want participants to do? Some goals might be to:
grow your email marketing list
introduce your brand to people
drive traffic to your blog
inform your target audience about an event you're hosting
It's important to start with the end in mind for what you want to achieve. To create a mission statement, fill in the blanks below:
My mission is to get potential customers to ______________. Specifically, I want my social media quiz to help gather/obtain/increase _______________.
If you're trying to achieve multiple goals at once, narrow it down to the one or two most important goals.
#2: Pinpoint Audience Needs
Now write down the needs of your target audience. Next to the items on that list, note how your business, blog or event helps to alleviate those needs.
This step allows you to craft a social media quiz topic and questions that will tap into the emotions, needs and feelings of your audience. It will also make people more inclined to share their details and preferences with you.
It's all about creating value and an expectation that any information your audience will receive from you will be designed with them in mind.
#3: Create the Quiz
To build your quiz, use a service like ShortStack or Interact, but make sure the service will integrate with your email service provider. This will allow you to use the quiz to collect new email subscribers and grow your audience.
Remember that a successful social media quiz needs to be interactive and fun. Also, make it about your audience. People love to learn more about themselves and have their wants and needs validated.
Topic and Headline
Choose a topic that will appeal to the quiz-taker's interests, emotions and feelings you wrote down in Step 2. Have fun and make the headline about your audience (for example, "What Napoleon Dynamite character are you?").
Here's a catchy headline used with a marketing quiz.
Questions and Answers
Once you have a topic and creative headline, start formulating some fun, engaging questions and answers. Here are a few tips to keep in mind:
Keep the questions and answers short. And don't exceed more than 6 answers per question. The quiz should take no more than 2 minutes to complete, so 5 to 10 questions is a good rule of thumb.
Use impactful images. They'll help draw attention to your quiz and keep participants engaged.
Make the quiz simple so it's easy to complete and be sure the results are easy to share. This will expand the reach of your quiz and increase the potential that it will go viral.
Stay away from salesy quizzes.
The questions and answers in most quizzes won't provide many actionable insights. Instead, the goal is strictly to make the quiz enjoyable for the target audience and attract potential leads at the end. However, your questions and answers should be related to your business, but done in an engaging way.
For example, Aaron Brothers used this creative question in their "What Color Are You?" quiz. The quiz goal was to build their special offers email list by encouraging people to discover what color they connect with best. The questions are fun and have a natural tie-in to the company's picture frame products.
Quiz Results
At the end of the quiz, don't reveal the results right away. Instead, offer people an incentive to sign up for your email list, but make it easy for them to skip to the results if they don't want to give it to you.
For example, offer a free ebook, white paper,

by @ Social Media Marketing Podcast helps your business thrive with social media

Fri Dec 19 03:00:36 PST 2014

Do you have a content marketing strategy for your business?
Would you like to discover how to create and distribute content that will drive sales for your company?
To learn how to grow your business with content marketing, native advertising and more, I interview Robert Rose.
More About This Show
The Social Media Marketing podcast is an on-demand talk radio show from Social Media Examiner. It's designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.
In this episode I interview Robert Rose, the co-author of the book, Managing Content Marketing: The Real-World Guide for Creating Passionate Subscribers to Your Brand. He's the chief strategist at the Content Marketing Institute. He's also the co-host of the podcast, This Old Marketing.
Robert explores content marketing, native advertising and what all of it means for your business.
You'll discover how to develop a content marketing strategy that grows your business, take advantage of the marketing opportunities offered through native advertising and learn new ways to distribute your content to the right influencers.
Share your feedback, read the show notes and get the links mentioned in this episode below.
Listen Now
You can also subscribe via iTunes, RSS, or Stitcher.
Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show:
Content Marketing
What is content marketing?
The Content Marketing Institute views content marketing as the approach businesses use to create, curate, distribute and promote the types of content their customers will find valuable. The goal of content marketing is to drive sales and move your business forward.
Done well, content marketing offers a value that's separate and discrete from the products or services you sell. It's about providing content-driven experiences that are educational, entertaining or useful to your audience, but ultimately drive engagement, awareness and sales for your brand.
Social media gives you the power to aggregate your own audiences and be your own media company. The tools needed to publish the type of content that establishes you as a thought leader in your industry and draws customers to your brand are readily available and easy to use.
Listen to the show to discover how content marketing can go beyond written articles and encompass things like videos, app development, games and more.
Examples of businesses that do content marketing well
You'll hear Robert explore how big companies like Chipotle Mexican Grill, LEGO and Coca-Cola leverage content marketing in creative and innovative ways such as movies, TV series and magazines.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBhTiyQU1kA
Compared to what large companies might spend on traditional mass media or big sponsorships, their content marketing expenditures are just a drop in the bucket, according to Robert—yet it has such a big impact from a branding standpoint.
Even if your small business doesn't have the budget for national TV spots and large print campaigns, you can get a lot of bang for your buck through content marketing. It's easy and inexpensive to publish, distribute and promote your own content through blogging, social media and podcasting.
Robert uses Marcus Sheridan's business blog to illustrate this point. He used his site to answer every question asked about pools and became an expert in the very small niche he was already passionate about. This propelled his business, River Pools and Spas, to huge success and top Google rankings.
Listen to the show to find out how the Content Marketing Institute leverages its blog, workshops, classes and podcast to drive attendance to their annual show, Content Marketing World.
Research on the effectiveness of content marketing
Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs recently released two new studies: B2B Content Marketing 2015: Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends — North America and B2C Content Marketing 2015: Be...

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Tue Jun 30 03:00:01 PDT 2015

Do you use LinkedIn Publisher?
Want to get deeper engagement from your posts?
LinkedIn Publisher now offers the ability to review stats for your published posts, which helps you refine messaging, target the right audience and directly engage with the people who interact with you.
In this article I'll share how to access LinkedIn Publisher statistics and how to use them strategically.
Listen to this article:
How to Access LinkedIn Publisher Stats
LinkedIn Publisher is a powerful platform because it's sticky. Your posts live on forever on your profile, and the content is searchable. It's good for positioning yourself as an expert in your industry and sharing relevant information with your followers.
Your LinkedIn Publisher analytics show you how your content is doing, make sure it's reaching the right people and help you connect with those who are responding to your posts. It's great for content development and lead generation.
You can access your LinkedIn statistics in a couple of places: on your profile just above your posts and on your author page (the URL that's associated with the page where your posts are listed). Click on See More, and then select a post to see its statistics.
The three sections of analytics are See How Your Post Is Doing, Demographics of Your Readers and Who Is Responding to Your Posts.
Here's a look at how to use each section to create more powerful content and increase visibility.
#1: Track Publication Trends
Go to the See How Your Post Is Doing section to discover if your posts are getting views. You can see your posts' visibility for the last 7 days, 15 days, 30 days, 6 months and 1 year.
This analytics section also lets you view how many likes, shares and comments a particular post has received, as shown in the upper-right corner of the image below.
After you publish a post, keep a close eye on the activity for the first week. Often visibility increases on the second, third and fourth day. Therefore, if you're writing a post that has a specific timeline (perhaps it relates to a project, product or webinar release), make sure you post it a day or two before you need people to see it.
Also, try posting on different days of the week and see if your results change. John White, a successful LinkedIn published writer, recommends posting at about 8 p.m. Eastern Time. Not only is this a good time to get views in Europe, but it's also not too late for U.S. time zones to see your content.
It's interesting to look at the long-term view also to see if there's some correlation between trending events and the visibility of your post. For example, if your post on the latest Apple products gets a lot of traffic, you may want to write posts whenever Apple releases new products.
Build on any increased reach by resharing a popular post as an update on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
If you like to keep a close eye on your metrics, see if there's a correlation between reshares and LinkedIn views.
#2: Discover Reader Demographics
Scroll down the page to see the demographics of your readers.
LinkedIn shows you reader demographics related to the top four industries, titles, locations and traffic sources.
Use the first three demographics (industries, titles and locations) to make sure you're attracting the right audience with your content. For example, if your niche demographic is marketing and advertising executives, but your content is attracting job-seekers in software design, you're probably using the wrong keywords and content.
Also check to see what other people in your field are writing about to attract the correct audience. Then reframe your content so it targets the right demographics.
You can always use LinkedIn Pulse to research what other people in your industry are writing about.
As far as traffic sources are concerned, it might surprise you to find out how people get to your posts.

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Mon Oct 26 02:00:21 PDT 2015

Do you want to use storytelling in your social media marketing?
Are you looking for inspiration?
Building your social media campaigns around stories helps you stand out from other brands, and grab the attention of consumers.
In this article you'll discover five ways to use storytelling in your social media marketing.
Listen to this article:
#1: Pay Attention to Story Structure
Freytag's pyramid is a powerful storytelling framework used in a variety of creative works from Aesop's Fables to Shakespeare's plays.
This structure splits the story into five narrative arcs, evoking various emotional reactions from your audience. These arcs include the inciting moment, the complication or rising action, the climax (or turning point), the reversal or falling action and the moment of release.
In your storytelling you can follow the steps in Freytag's pyramid or use them in parts, but the approach helps you make an emotional connection with your consumers.
In 2014 Jaguar launched a high-suspense campaign with David Beckham in China, targeting local social networks WeChat and Weibo. Before revealing Beckham as the brand ambassador, the campaign asked consumers to guess Mr. Jaguar's identity.
Jaguar released street interviews and videos to build suspense. They also dropped hints throughout the campaign to get consumer traction. The exercise was highly successful and drew 50,000 reposts when it started. An additional 30,000 reposts came in after David Beckham was introduced as the ambassador.
#2: Sequence Your Ads to Create Stories
According to the recently published The Power of Storytelling from Facebook IQ, online storytelling on social media can have a direct impact on in-store purchases.
As an experiment, Refinery29 tested Facebook ads that were sequenced like stories. Overall, the experiment yielded a 56% conversion lift and an 87% rise in view-throughs. Refinery29 also saw a 7% increase in in-store purchases and a 10% increase in online purchases.
Deliver sequenced Facebook ads that combine quality content with a strong call to create a social media-led storytelling campaign like this one.
#3: Align Your Story with Audience Values
A belief ecosystem allows you to move away from product-oriented branding to a more lifestyle or customer value-oriented branding. This is a natural fit for social media where businesses need to define a niche target group (the first believers), develop a brand communication strategy (giving consumers a simple and clear reason to believe) and create online and offline spaces for brand reach and to share stories.
This approach is effective because it allows you to sharpen your brand identity, creating strong competitive differentiation and higher price flexibility. This, in turn, has a direct impact on your bottom line.
In 2014 Daimler's smart division launched a campaign for the FOR lifestyle brand. As Daimler explains, "'FOR' stands for a constructive, positive and optimistic outlook that can change the world." The company set up a special portal to aggregate social content for the #WhatAreYouFOR campaign hashtag.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SB_0vRnkeOk
Another component was an offline campaign centered on pedestrian safety. A key element was the Dancing Traffic Light Manikin, which entertained and asked customers, "What are you for?" This approach helped solidify smart's positioning as a consumer lifestyle choice: a green city car that cares about the world.
The customer experience was the central pull for smart's campaign. This was in stark contrast to the pre-2013 online positioning of smart cars that talked more about product features than value. The FOR brand campaign also clearly differentiated smart cars from Daimler's performance-oriented cars.
#4: Tell Local Stories
With powerful social media reach (1 in 7 people in the world are on Facebook) and democratization of the narrative,

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Wed May 25 03:00:43 PDT 2016

Do you want more followers on Snapchat?
Are you taking advantage of every connection option?
Using the right tools to their fullest potential will grow your following and increase the chances that others will discover your Snapchat profile.
In this article, you'll discover three ways to grow your audience on Snapchat.
Listen to this article:
#1: Make an In-Person Connection
The easiest way to get people to follow you on Snapchat is when you're with them in person, where it's simple to share your username (and make sure you've spelled it correctly) or your snapcode.
Add by Username
If you want to add someone by username, open Snapchat and tap Add Friends.
Then tap Add by Username.
Finally, type in the username ("johnleedumas," for example) and tap the plus sign.
Add by Snapcode
An increasingly popular way to add people to your Snapchat is to give them your snapcode. You'll find your unique snapcode on your home screen. Someone can take a picture of your code with their phone and then easily add you, and vice versa.
To add people by snapcode, first you take a picture of their snapcode with your phone. Then open Snapchat and tap Add by Snapcode.
Next, tap the snapcode of the person on your camera roll.
Finally, tap Add Friend.
Another cool feature of snapcodes is that you can simply open Snapchat, point your camera at your friend's snapcode, and tap and hold the snapcode. This will automatically add that person.
#2: Post Your Snaplink on Your Social Channels
Leveraging other social platforms is another great way to increase your Snapchat following. You can share your username and snapcode like in step 1; however, the easiest way for someone to add you on Snapchat is online with your snaplink.
Similar to unique snapcodes, everyone has an individual snaplink. You can share your personal snaplink on other social platforms, and even in your emails to your audience.
To create your personal snaplink, simply type snapchat.com/add/ and then your username (for example, snapchat.com/add/johnleedumas).
Snaplinks are powerful, because you can simply tap on someone's snaplink on your smartphone, and the Snapchat app will automatically open and add that person.
No other steps are required and there's no username to memorize.
#3: Engage With Users on GhostCodes
GhostCodes can help you grow your Snapchat following even faster. The app makes it easy for people with similar interests to find one another without requiring a previous connection outside of Snapchat.
Think of GhostCodes as a phonebook for Snapchat. You create a profile on the app and upload your snapcode so others can add you on Snapchat. You can also browse the app's directory to follow other Snapchat users based on categories that interest you.
How's how to get started with GhostCodes.
Set Up Your Profile
First, download the GhostCodes app from the App Store or Google Play. Then open the app and create your account. Fill in your personal information, including your Snapchat username and a brief bio.
Next, you're prompted to add your snapcode.
To do this, open Snapchat and tap on the little ghost icon to see your snapcode. Then take a screenshot of it. (On iOS, press and hold the Home and power buttons simultaneously. On Android, press and hold the Home and volume-down buttons simultaneously.)
Next, go back to GhostCodes and tap the ghost on your screen. The screenshot you just took will appear and you've now added your snapcode!
Finally, add your interests (this will help other like-minded people find you). Select a category that best fits the type of content you create on Snapchat. You can only pick one category, but you can change it later if needed.
For example, select Inspirational as your category, so other users searching the Inspirational category can find you.
Use the App
After setting up your account,

If you’re like many people online, you have a love/hate relationship with Google+. On one hand, you might not be a huge fan of the platform because it’s another social network to manage. On the flipside, Google is the top player in the search engine world. Any time you and your business can do something […]

by @ Social Media Marketing Podcast helps your business thrive with social media

Fri Jul 01 03:00:18 PDT 2016

Do you participate in Twitter chats?
Want to discover how to get the most out of them?
To explore how marketers can benefit from Twitter chats, I interview Madalyn Sklar.
More About This Show
The Social Media Marketing podcast is an on-demand talk radio show from Social Media Examiner. It's designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.
In this episode, I interview Madalyn Sklar, a Twitter marketing expert. She's host of the Twitter Smarter podcast and hosts a weekly Twitter chat at #TwitterSmarter. She blogs about Twitter at MadalynSklar.com.
Madalyn explores the power of Twitter chats and how to benefit from them.
You'll discover tools to make marketing with Twitter chats easier.
Share your feedback, read the show notes, and get the links mentioned in this episode below.
Listen Now
You can also subscribe via iTunes, RSS, or Stitcher.
Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show:
Twitter Chats
Madalyn's story
Madalyn had been doing online marketing for a long time, and when social media came about she was hooked. Twitter was her favorite, because the 140-character limit forces you to be concise.
She shares that whenever she traveled to different events and conferences, she asked people what was their favorite platform and why. She was amazed at how many people said they didn't like or understand Twitter.
As a result, she went on a mission: to help people become Twitter Smarter. She began using the hashtag #TwitterSmarter as she developed online classes and eventually launched Twitter chats.
Listen to the show to discover how Madalyn and I first crossed paths.
What's a Twitter chat?
The most simple description of a Twitter chat is a group of people coming together on Twitter for about an hour each week to have a conversation that revolves around a pre-determined hashtag. As long as people include the hashtag in their tweet, they're part of the conversation.
It's a great way to meet lots of like-minded people, as well as receive and give advice, Madalyn explains. She encourages people to learn from her chats, but also to chime in and share their own expertise.
A common approach, the one Madalyn takes, is to host a guest who does a Q&A for each Twitter chat.
Listen to the show to hear my analogies to Twitter chats.
Why participate?
Madalyn says that last year, she made it her mission to participate in as many Twitter chats as possible. She confides that it's not been easy; it takes effort to be a regular participant in several hour-long chats each week.
Twitter chats are great for helping you connect and network with people.
For example, when Madalyn started going to #MediaChat, she didn't know anybody. She started to connect with people and ended up having a side conversation with Matt Diederichs from Hootsuite, which is one of her favorite platforms for scheduling tweets.
Later on, she hosted Matt as a guest on her podcast and her Twitter chat.
Side conversations are a common occurrence during Twitter chats, Madalyn adds. You're still actively participating and using the hashtag, but you're also creating a small community within the big community. It's a great way to make valuable, strong connections.
Listen to the show to hear why Madalyn refers to Twitter chats as "cocktail parties."
Where to find Twitter chats
Madalyn finds that it works best to run a Google search for your topic and "Twitter chat" in Google search. Another option is to type in "Twitter chat," and you'll find some directories.
Since directories aren't always reliable or up to date, Madalyn also recommends looking for chats on Twitter (you can identify them by the repetitive hashtag). Once you dip into a chat, you'll hear about others. She says you can also find out about specific chats in Twitter bios, because many times hosts will mention them there.

by Mahum Ali @ Twinword, Inc.

Wed Jul 12 00:29:28 PDT 2017

Search engine optimization is playing an important role in websites and ranking keywords on landing pages. Auditing websites is not easy and very time consuming which is why you would need the help of certain tools to find problem areas within the website. I have listed my top 5 SEO auditing tools […]

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Thu Sep 03 03:00:02 PDT 2015

Are you using Instagram for your business?
Have you thought about advertising on the platform?
Instagram just began offering paid advertising opportunities through select developer partners. In the coming months the platform is expected to create a Facebook-like self-serve option for any budget.
In this article you'll discover findings from studies about Instagram's current reach, and the potential to reach targeted audiences with ads.
Evolution of Instagram Ads
In December 2014, Instagram reported its user base hit 300 million, 64.2 million from the U.S. alone. More exciting to brands and marketers than strict user numbers, however, was the engagement rate. Instagram users like, comment and re-gram at a rate of between 3.1% (Socialbakers research) to 4.2% (Forrester research). Comparably, Twitter and Facebook posts have engagement rates of .07% and below.
Listen to this article:
With population and engagement numbers like these, of course brands wanted to get access to Instagram audiences. For three years now, Facebook has been working on the correct advertising mix for Instagram. Until June 2015, businesses could only reach Instagram audiences by posting content, commenting, sharing and liking consumer posts. Instagram's few brand partners could place sponsored posts, much like Facebook's boosted posts. Strict ads, however, were not available.
In June 2015, Instagram rolled out the call-to-action buttons Shop Now, Learn More and Install Now, which take users to mini-apps within Instagram, rather than brand websites. That way, users stay on Instagram once they've shopped, learned and installed.
Now Instagram has provided advertising opportunities for all brands… provided you enter via one of their developer partners. These partners include Ampush, Brand Networks, 4C, Kenshoo, Nanigans, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, SocialCode and Unified. They require a minimum spend, so if you're a small business, you won't be able to take advantage of Instagram's new advertising opportunities until later in the year.
Facebook's advertising followed the same path: It offered advertising to certain brands and then eventually made ads user-friendly enough that a developer intermediary was not needed.
If you don't have the budget to utilize developer intermediaries, now is a good time to familiarize yourself with Instagram so that when the ads roll out to everyone, including small businesses, creating and posting an ad will be a simple task. On its blog, Instagram explains:
Instagram ads will be available to advertisers of all types later this year. We are currently testing self-serve buying interfaces and APIs with a small group of partners, and we expect to make them more widely available over the coming months.
With the context understood, small- and medium-sized businesses must evaluate whether Instagram is the right place for them. The following research will help with these decisions.
#1: Instagram's Access to Facebook Data Offers a Significant Opportunity
Lighting a fire under many marketers, Instagram currently doesn't have the pay-to-play platform that Facebook instituted in spring 2013. Before that point, companies that had built Facebook audiences had the luxury of getting each post to nearly every earned follower. Facebook then dropped organic reach to 6% and lower, forcing companies to pay to boost posts for as little as $1 per day if they wanted to reach more of their earned audience.
Conversely, on Instagram, for the foreseeable future, each post will reach close to 100% of its earned audience… free! Well, free except for the time costs and any costs involved with Instagram's partners or other outside consulting. When Instagram will go to the Facebook-style pay-to-play platform is unclear. Until that time, you'll save significant marketing dollars experimenting with which content wins the most attention, engagement and likes.
This said,

by @ Social Media Marketing Podcast helps your business thrive with social media

Fri Apr 15 03:00:06 PDT 2016

Do you use stories to engage your audience?
Want to see how powerful stories can be?
To discover how to create stories for business that move people to act, I interview Park Howell.
More About This Show
The Social Media Marketing podcast is an on-demand talk radio show from Social Media Examiner. It's designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.
In this episode I interview Park Howell, a brand story strategist who helps businesses grow through the power of stories. He also hosts the Business of Story podcast and performs workshops on stories for business.
Park will explore the mechanics of storytelling, a craft every marketer should master.
You'll discover why this is important to social marketers.
Share your feedback, read the show notes, and get the links mentioned in this episode below.
Listen Now
You can also subscribe via iTunes, RSS, or Stitcher.
Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show:
Story for Business
Park's story
Park, who has been in the advertising and marketing business for 30 years, shares that what always frustrated him was not knowing whether a TV spot or radio commercial was going to work.
Story started to bubble up in the advertising world around the same time Park's middle son, Parker, went to Chapman University film school (from 2006 to 2010). He asked Parker to send him his textbooks when he was finished with them because he wanted to see what they were teaching his son to prepare him for Hollywood, the most competitive storytelling place in the universe.
One of the screenwriting books was Save the Cat! by Blake Snyder. Blake, who Park says sold more family-oriented screenplays in the 1980s than anybody else, had a prescription for the 15 beats to a story.
According to Blake, a screenplay needs to be the same number of pages as the weight of a jockey (110), and Blake could tell you on each page (within a page or two) what needed to happen. Although it sounds formulaic, it worked very well for Blake and many other writers, Park adds, and the approach fascinated him.
When Park was introduced to the work of Joseph Campbell, America's foremost mythologist, he noted how Blake had adapted Campbell's The Hero's Journey, or what Joseph called the monomyth, a 17-step process for story structure.
During the time Park was reading through The Hero's Journey, he was looking at a brand strategy plan and realized he was already following this story structure with his plan. Park wondered what would happen if he was intentional about it.
Park boiled down the steps of the Hero's Journey to 10 steps for business, and used it to guide the creation of content to tell a story that would make a difference. To Park's amazement, it worked, so he fine-tuned it into what he calls the Story Cycle, a process that can be used for everything from high-level brand strategy to the creation of a 30-second TV spot.
In the social media world, you just have a small blip of time to communicate a story. Park explains that you can get that story across if you follow the three fundamental principles of the three-act play: start with a setup, introduce conflict, and resolve it.
He shares that if you can do it in a 6-second Vine video, you will have connected with the deep reaches of your audience's minds.
Listen to the show to learn about Park's background in music, as well as his comparisons between music and story.
Why marketers should care about stories
Park believes that stories are people's superpowers, and says the brain is hardwired to constantly search for them. Humans can go weeks without eating and days without drinking, but only roughly 35 seconds without their brains scanning the environment to create meaning out of what they see.
Park explains how while one son was studying film and Park was studying what Hollywood knows about story structure,

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Wed Dec 16 03:00:37 PST 2015

Do you want to sell your products using Instagram?
Looking for tools to make it easier for customers to buy from you?
The right Instagram tools help you maximize your revenue.
In this article you'll discover six tools to help you sell products on Instagram.
Listen to this article:
#1: Identify Shoppable Content With a Hashtag
Hashtags are a big part of how you connect with users on Instagram, and Inselly makes good use of them. Like other platforms on this list, Inselly lets you use the profile-link-to-storefront method of selling. It comes with the added bonus of the Inselly hashtag.
Add the hashtag #inselly to your description, as well as any other relevant tags that might put you in front of your target audience. Not only does this hashtag make it easier for users to search for buyable content, but it also flags your content as being buyable if users stumble across it somewhere else.
Sellers can process purchases through PayPal, and buyers can contact sellers through a message either on the app or the Inselly website.
Buyers need to have Inselly installed and integrated with Instagram, but it's free for them to do so. It's also free for sellers to use, with no commissions or fees, although you can choose to purchase "coins" (the international currency Inselly utilizes) to promote your content.
[Editor's note: Inselly recently updated. Buyers don't need to install or integrate the software with Instagram, and it's free for them to use.]
#2: Sync Inventory Across Your Online Stores
Shopseen is a multichannel listing interface that allows you to upload and list your products and have them automatically uploaded to a variety of ecommerce stores like Shopify, Etsy, eBay and Woo.
Shopseen will then update your inventory, continually and automatically, across all of these sales channels. They also have a straightforward Instagram selling tool that's easy to use for both ecommerce businesses and customers.
Shopseen will create a storefront using your profile link, similar to other services you'll see in this article.
Once you've linked your Instagram to Shopseen, upload images of your products to Instagram, and add a price to the description. Shopsheen will then upload the product to your Shopseen page (which is off of Instagram).
Ask followers to click to your store through your profile link and you can collect payment from a credit card. They don't have to set up their own Shopseen account, which is a strong benefit. This is particularly helpful for ecommerce businesses that feature their products on a wide variety of storefronts.
Pricing is based on the amount of sales you make per month and the number of stores you have. You start with a free plan that allows you to have one store and Shopseen takes a 10% fee on Instagram sales.
#3: Sell Through Comments
Soldsie allows users to purchase directly from a seller's Instagram news feed without ever leaving the app. As an added bonus, this selling tool works for Facebook, too.
Both buyers and sellers have to install and integrate the software with Instagram after registering with Soldsie, which uses "comment selling" as its method of making sales.
Upload your products through your selling dashboard to turn the product images into shoppable Instagram posts. Then you include specific buying information and product details, such as "100% cotton, comes in blue and white" on each Instagram product post.
Ask your buyers to make purchases by commenting "sold" directly on the post and including any necessary size/color/selection information.
Once buyers comment with this information, Soldsie emails them an invoice so you can collect payment via PayPal or credit card.
Soldsie has a variety of pricing plans based on the needs of your store, starting with a basic plan that costs $49 per month, with a 5.9% commission fee on all sales.
#4: Connect To a Shoppable Storefront
Have2Have.

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Mon Feb 08 03:00:39 PST 2016

Looking for a new way to connect with customers and prospects on Facebook?
Have you considered Facebook Messenger?
Messenger for business pages makes it easy to offer instant one-on-one customer service, while keeping a record of the conversation.
In this article I’ll explain how to use Facebook Messenger with your business page.
Listen to this article:
Why Facebook Messenger for Business?
There are 800 million people who use Facebook Messenger each month. The instant messaging service is available to anyone, whether they have a Facebook profile or not.
When Messenger first became available for business pages, Facebook users could message page owners and the page owners could reply.
Now, page owners can respond to anyone who has commented on their page, privately or publicly. To keep privacy levels in check, businesses can’t download the email addresses of fans nor can they initiate conversations with users.
The ability to direct message your audience is extremely powerful, especially since Facebook would rather have users stay on their platform (rather than jumping over to email).
More than 89% of users access Facebook on their mobile devices and they check Facebook 14 times a day. Those people have an intimate relationship with Messenger. When your company starts conversations with users, you’re befriending them on that level. This is how to change business relationships into personal ones.
Globally, Facebook continues to roll out Messenger features designed to help businesses efficiently manage their communications.
Note: With the number of Messenger users hurtling towards the milestone of its first billion, look for Facebook to monetize Messenger sometime soon.
Mark Zuckerberg has said in the past that Facebook likes to wait until its products grow to one billion users before focusing on driving revenue. As the demand for more ad inventory increases, Facebook needs to remain nimble with its core products and offer additional ways for advertisers to reach their audiences.
Why Send Private Messages?
Some of the biggest benefits to being able to private message your customers are related to social customer care.
Answer questions about products or services. Prospects who are looking to make a purchase might want to ask you questions privately first. Encourage prospects to contact or message your business so you can give them the information they need to pull the trigger on their purchase.
Have real-time conversations giving customer support. If customers are having an issue with their purchase, Messenger is an immediate way to assist them. You can also send customers order confirmations and shipping info, and invite them to check out related products.
Private support is especially important if your business is in a highly regulated industry (such as finance and insurance) where you can’t discuss certain topics publicly. Messenger is also helpful when customers need to give you their private information to resolve an issue.
Handle complaints. This is one of the top reasons Facebook introduced the ability to private message people who comment on your page. When you get negative comments from users, Messenger allows you to take the conversation offline on the same platform and defuse them pretty quickly.
#1: Enable Messages on Your Page
Your page can accept and send messages only if you’ve enabled Messenger.
To turn on Messenger for your page, go to Messages under General Settings and then click Edit. Select the option to allow messages to your page, and click Save Changes.
If you find that you’re getting more Facebook messages than you can handle, you may want to consider turning the feature off until you’re able to appoint more moderators. Another option is to make use of the ‘Away’ setting (see below for more on this).
#2: Configure Message Settings
There are two settings to adjust for your business Messenger: Response Time and Inst...

by Rank Fuse @ Rank Fuse Interactive

Wed May 18 12:15:52 PDT 2016

One of the best ways to get more visitors to your blog or website is to use search engine optimization (SEO). When you choose specific keywords and insert them into a post or article in anatural way, your website has a better chance of showing up high on search engine results. It can be difficult […]

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Mon Feb 01 03:00:32 PST 2016

Do you want to increase engagement on Instagram?
Have you thought about Instagram contests?
Instagram contests are a great way to get people talking about your business and increase your followers.
In this article you'll discover tools and tips to help marketers run a successful Instagram contest.
#1: Follow Contest Rules
When you're hosting or promoting any kind of contest, you have to follow certain rules. Here are the guidelines for running an Instagram contest:
Listen to this article:
Don't inaccurately tag content or users, and don't encourage participants to inaccurately tag content or other users. For example, don't ask users to tag themselves in photos if they aren't actually in the photos.
Acknowledge that your contest isn't associated with or supported by Instagram. You don't need a neon sign stating this. Just be sure you're not inadvertently making it seem like Instagram is endorsing your promotion.
Follow proper eligibility requirements. Some businesses feature products or offer prizes that have age or residency restrictions. If you're a winery, for example, clarify that users must be 21 and older to participate.
While most of these guidelines fall under the umbrella of common sense, it's important to make note of them. It's easy to forget about audience restrictions or forget to state them.
#2: Pick a Contest Type
If you're planning to run a promotion or contest on Instagram, you'll have to decide what type of contest to run, how it will operate and how users can participate.
Here are some different types of Instagram contests to consider.
Comment on the Post Contests
This is a popular type of Instagram contest where you ask users to comment on your post. For example, you might ask fans what their favorite flavor of ice cream is. Asking a question generates engagement because users have to engage beyond simply liking the post.
Beauty by Earth asked fans to like and comment on their Instagram post for a chance to win a free exfoliating sponge set. To follow up with contest winners, the company tagged the winners in an Instagram post with a request to privately send their contact information.
Like the Post Contests
Another type of Instagram contest is to ask fans to like the post that's advertising the contest. While this tactic can generate some engagement, and fans are likely to participate because it's easy to do, many businesses would rather see a more deliberate interaction like commenting.
Post Your Own Photo Contests
For this type of contest, you ask fans to post their own Instagram images along with the contest hashtag. Make it clear to fans which hashtag they should use to participate. That makes it easy for you to find them and lets you know who's entering the contest.
Starbucks' Red Cup Contest generates a ton of engagement and attention each year. Fans are asked to post photos of their red cup moments with the hashtag #redcupcontest.
Combine Contests
You can also combine several of these contest types. For example, you might ask users to like your post and comment, or follow your brand and upload their own posts with a certain hashtag.
Keep in mind that you don't want to ask users only to follow you, because you can't track this action effectively or reliably.
#3: Choose a Tool to Manage Your Contest
You'll find a number of great tools to set up, run and manage your Instagram contests.
Because Instagram has made it clear that they won't be associated with or help support any contests on the platform, all of the tools available for managing contests are from third-party companies. Here are three to consider:
Gleam
Gleam's contest platform makes it easy to host a contest on Instagram, and comes with a slew of helpful features. The company boasts an average of four actions per user in their competitions.
The interface is easy to use and straightforward, featuring a dashboard with current and scheduled competitio...

The idea of using images to tell a story is as old as cavemen drawing pictographs on walls. When books were invented, images were added to storybooks to bring tales to life. Now that the Internet has taken the world by storm, people are supplementing blog posts with visuals to be heard in a world […]

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Wed Nov 04 03:00:48 PST 2015

Do you have an email list?
Are you looking for creative ways to use Facebook ads?
With Facebook custom audiences, you can reach your email subscribers with relevant Facebook ads.
In this article I'll share five ways to target your email subscribers with Facebook ads.
Listen to this article:
#1: Serve Ads to All Email Subscribers
Since it requires no email list segmentation, the best way to get started is to target all your email subscribers. Simply upload your entire email list right into Facebook as a custom audience.
The key is to create a unified message across different channels: email to Facebook to website.
Target this audience if you're looking to reach your entire list to get the news out about a big event or a storewide sale, where the message is the same for everyone. Make sure your Facebook ad has a similar look and message or offer as your emails.
Amazon uses this tactic to remind customers about their Deal of the Day.
The idea is to share engaging content, so your email audience will help spread your message by interacting with your ads, acting as brand ambassadors.
Since this audience is already familiar with your brand, analyze engagement metrics (likes, shares, comments) to measure the effectiveness of these ads. Their interaction validates how well the ad resonates with them, which results in a higher relevancy score, more social proof and free organic reach.
#2: Target Ad Delivery by Opens and Unopens
To employ these next few tactics, it's important you are able to segment your email subscriber list into audiences for remarketing.
First, divide your email list into people who have opened your email and those who have not. Then, further segment the open list into those who did and did not take action.
Target Subscribers Who Opened Your Email
Create a Facebook ad that looks similar to the email you sent for those who only read your email. You want to get this audience to take action, so change up the messages with the ad. For instance, if the goal of the email was to get white paper downloads, then offer the same white paper in your Facebook ad, but write a message or ad copy that differs from your email.
If you're an ecommerce store trying to get your customers to take advantage of a weekly 20%-off deal, show subscribers an ad that highlights the promotion and encourages them to take action.
Sierra Trading Post created a Facebook offer with the same deal as their email.
With this custom audience, exclude people who have already purchased or downloaded an offer.
Target Subscribers Who Didn't Open Your Email
For the subscribers who didn't even open your email, wait a few days and then target them with a Facebook ad. Since they haven't read the email, show them the same message. This helps your company stay in front of your audience.
#3: Segment Subscribers by Purchase
If you have an ecommerce website, a great way to increase the lifetime value of a customer is to cross-promote and/or upsell related products.
Amazon does this brilliantly. The website is always showing their shoppers similar products, bundled products or other products previous customers bought. Their goal is to get people to buy more products that are relevant to what they are viewing.
Utilize Facebook carousel ads to highlight multiple products that provide additional value for previous customers. Show products that fit with items they've already purchased. So if they bought dog treats, then show them dog food or dog toys.
Look for creative ways to divide your audience for the purpose of upselling or cross-promoting other products they would find useful.
Depending on your business goals, consider segmenting your customers by type of products, purchase amount, purchase date and frequency of purchases. Then target a carousel ad to each audience.
#4: Reach Out to Disengaged Audiences
Do you have a list of people who haven't opened your emails in quit...

by @ Social Media Marketing Podcast helps your business thrive with social media

Fri Nov 22 03:00:40 PST 2013

Do you use StumbleUpon for your business?
Are you wondering how you can use StumbleUpon to drive more traffic to your content?
To learn how your business can benefit from StumbleUpon, I interview Nick Robinson for this episode of the Social Media Marketing podcast.
More About This Show
The Social Media Marketing podcast is a show from Social Media Examiner.
It's designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.
The show format is on-demand talk radio (also known as podcasting).
In this episode, I interview Nick Robinson, co-author of StumbleUpon for Dummies. He's also the social media channel manager for SAP Americas.
Nick shares how StumbleUpon works and why it's different from other platforms.
You'll learn how to use StumbleUpon to discover shareable content and the type of content that works best.
Share your feedback, read the show notes and get the links mentioned in this episode below!
Listen Now
You can also subscribe via iTunes, RSS, or Stitcher.
Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show:
StumbleUpon Marketing
What makes StumbleUpon different from other social networks
Nick explains how StumbleUpon is a content discovery engine. It's a search engine and bookmarking site all in one.
It's great if you want to bring exposure to your online content, which can include your website, blog post, video or infographic.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8DtI9e4xZ8
Nick believes that the key differentiator with StumbleUpon is the Stumble button. It takes you directly to a piece of content on another website that you are interested in.
You can tell StumbleUpon what your interests are in several ways. When you set up your profile, you can specify your interests, the interests of people you follow and what pieces of content you have given a thumbs-up to on that particular website.
When you click the Thumbs-Up or Thumbs-Down button, it tells StumbleUpon's algorithm if it should or shouldn't serve that type of content to you in the future.
Each person's StumbleUpon experience is personalized. It allows you to curate content, promote your content and connect with communities with all types of interests.
Listen to the show to find out how you can create content that's relevant to an audience within an Interest category.
StumbleUpon for B2B and B2C
Nick believes that any business in B2B or B2C can use the platform. It all depends on the type of content you produce. The content needs to entertain, be informative and connect with your audience.
To be successful, you need to test and measure, based on the changes you learn.
StumbleUpon launched their new design and a new mobile app, which has increased its mobile stumbles by 25% over a one-year period. However, the majority of StumbleUpon activity is still primarily desktop, at over 60%.
Since these changes were made, around 40% of their activity comes from mobile. In the next couple of years, Nick thinks it will easily overtake desktop.
You'll discover as a marketer what you need to consider with these figures in mind.
According to Alexa, StumbleUpon is one of the top 149 websites in the world and Quantcast estimated that 23.4 million people in the last month in the U.S. alone have used it.
As of June 2013, when the StumbleUpon for Dummies book was published, StumbleUpon had 25 million registered users. They have indexed over 100 million–plus web pages.
Listen to the show to find out how much the average user "stumbles" per month and the time spent on the platform.
Companies who use StumbleUpon well
Nick says that two companies come to mind, which are both primarily content publishers.
The first is Forbes. They do a great job, which is primarily attributable to their company page. They use it to acquire followers and as a content feed.
Unfortunately StumbleUpon has closed off access to these pages to the general ...

by @ Social Media Marketing Podcast helps your business thrive with social media

Fri Feb 19 03:00:26 PST 2016

Do you engage with your customers and prospects on social media?
Want tactics to warm up your leads?
To discover how to move people from fans to customers, I interview Kim Walsh-Phillips.
More About This Show
The Social Media Marketing podcast is an on-demand talk radio show from Social Media Examiner. It's designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.
In this episode I interview Kim Walsh-Phillips, CEO of Elite Digital Group, a direct response social agency. She's also a columnist for Entrepreneur Magazine. Her brand-new book, co-authored with Dan Kennedy, is the No B.S. Guide to Direct Response Social Media Marketing.
Kim will explore how to use social media to turn cold prospects into warmer opportunities that lead to sales.
You'll discover which types of content will engage your audience.
Share your feedback, read the show notes, and get the links mentioned in this episode below.
Listen Now
You can also subscribe via iTunes, RSS, or Stitcher.
Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show:
Nurturing Leads With Social
Kim's backstory
Kim says she has been doing public relations since before MySpace. Although she would get clients into the newspaper and throw great events, she was unable to show a return on investment. So when it came time for clients to renew, they would cancel. Kim spent much of her time going to networking events, meeting people, and trying to sign new clients. She knew she had to do something differently.
In 2010, a friend gave her Dan Kennedy's original book, the No B.S. Guide to Direct Marketing. Because social is a channel just like direct mail, television, and radio, applying Dan's principles to social media worked.
She could show clients how much money came from every dollar they spent, and was able to keep their accounts,which is something she was unable to do before.
Listen to the show to learn what Kim had to do one time to make payroll.
Direct response social media
Kim explains that people use social media to have conversations, not to read a brochure. Direct response is a marketing tactic used to get a click-through, an opt-in, or drive a purchase.
She shares that before social media, direct response tactics were used in direct mail, infomercials, print advertising, and even email.
Kim says that when you tie social media and direct response together, you have conversations with people to create a direct result that is measured.
Listen to the show to discover why Kim believes email and social media marketing don't carry a lot of direct response messaging.
How marketers can tap into social
Facebook is a cocktail party, Kim explains, whereas Google is a shopping mall (people are there searching for products, programs, and services). If you're going to interrupt their cocktail party with an "excuse me," you have to offer enough value that someone is willing to turn away from their best friend to pay attention to you.
To engage fans in this non-disruptive way, Kim suggests you make a list of the 10 questions prospects ask you most often. For example, if you're an orthodontist, you would use the questions parents ask when they're considering braces for their child.
If you're just getting started in business, she suggests using Quora to find questions people ask about your industry. Kim also shares that you can give services such as Textbroker.com a list of questions and their experts will answer them for you, creating copyright-free content really inexpensively.
Simply answering those questions makes for great blog content and social media posts. Each day in your social media content, post a link to one of those great blog posts. Alternatively, use it for the post itself. For example: "A lot of people are curious as to how much braces cost. Costs generally range between X and Y." Those types of posts, Kim adds,

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Mon Sep 07 03:00:28 PDT 2015

Are you participating in Facebook groups?
Want to start one to support your business?
Facebook groups help businesses promote products, support customers and much more.
In this article I'll share nine ways Facebook groups can benefit your business.
Listen to this article:
#1: Sell Products
As an alternative or addition to selling products or digital goods on your website, you're now able to sell in Facebook groups.
Once you create a For Sale group, you'll see an option to "sell something" in your Facebook update.
If you don't yet see this option in your Facebook group, take the opportunity to learn how selling works. Also nominate your group for this feature.
#2: Supplement Video Training Courses
If your business sells a video training course, give customers who purchase it access to a private Facebook group as part of the package. They can ask questions and get supplementary material, as well as forge a bond with other customers.
It's a win-win situation for everyone. The customer can get help and additional resources for the product they purchased. Plus, it gives your business the opportunity to forge deeper connections with their customers and promote other courses and services.
#3: Promote Chats
Those who run a regular Twitter or online chat, or even have a running discussion on their Facebook page, may want to separate it from their business. They can do so through a Facebook group. It's a great way to promote upcoming chats and guests. Plus, you can keep the conversations focused.
MediaChat uses their public group to share more information about chat guests, offer member deals and give shout-outs.
Remember to let participants know about your Facebook group and page (if applicable) during your chat. This way you can continue to build up your group and online presence.
#4: Establish Expertise
One of the easiest ways to use Facebook groups for business is to become a resource in your field. Create a group or contribute your knowledge to one that already exists.
For example, members of the Internet Marketing Super Friends group, numbering more than 13,000, pride themselves on helping other Internet marketers. Members can ask questions about SEO, get recommendations for designers and tools and more.
The key thing about this type of group is to be a resource without self-promotion. (Most groups like this do not tolerate promoting content of any kind.)
Use Facebook groups to be helpful and give freely of yourself. You'll be rewarded in spades as the word gets out from other members.
#5: Collect Feedback
Want to test out new ideas on some of your existing customers? One way to do that is to start a Facebook group to use as a think-tank for your business.
Create a secret Facebook group, invite some of your best customers and openly discuss new ideas you're thinking about implementing in your business. Then gather feedback from them.
This type of group provides a way to build stronger relationships with customers, while helping business owners collect honest feedback on what their customers might like.
#6: Provide Customer Service
Every business needs to provide a way for customers to get help. While this could be through a contact form on your website or through your Facebook page, a secret Facebook group is another option.
The reason to start a secret group, instead of a closed or public one, is because secret groups can't be located in search or accessed via URL. Instead, members have to be invited. This gives you better control over adding new members. Plus, it protects your business in case you have disgruntled customers. (They won't be able to access the group unless you've invited them.)
If you want to make your customer service Facebook group easy to find, create a closed group. However, be sure to state whom this group is for in the description. This will give you better control over approving and rejecting new members.

by Today's Industry Insider @ The Kissmetrics Marketing Blog

Tue Aug 08 11:15:46 PDT 2017

AdWords is one of the most predictable paid media channels. By using it, you’re focusing on people who show their intent in advertising platforms. Search traffic is growing by a lot. In 2014, marketers spent $23.44 billion in the search channel. That same figure for this year is already $32.32 billion, and it’s expected to […]

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Mon Feb 22 03:00:54 PST 2016

Are you planning a Facebook contest?
Want to make sure it's a success?
An easy-to-follow checklist of tips and best practices will help you launch Facebook contests your audience will love.
In this article I'll share 17 tips to make your Facebook contest a success.
Listen to this article:
#1: Review Facebook's Terms of Service
Facebook periodically changes its rules and regulations about contests and other promotions. Be sure to check the Facebook Guidelines page before you launch your contest.
#2: Set a S.M.A.R.T. Goal
A S.M.A.R.T. goal is one that's specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely. Make sure you clearly define your contest's goals before you start planning. Do you want to promote a new product? Grow your email list? Perhaps you're looking to gather a bunch of user-generated content such as photos and videos.
To set your Facebook contest up for success, focus on one or two attainable goals.
#3: Choose the Contest Type
Consider running caption, photo-vote, video-vote, and sweepstakes contests, which are always popular on Facebook. Sweepstakes are the easiest to enter and the key to driving lots of entries is to pick the right prize.
Del Mar Fans & Lighting's straightforward Facebook giveaway requires entrants to simply vote on which lighting product they prefer. Once they vote, they're entered. When the contest ends, a company rep will choose a winner at random.
Remember, you need to develop a contest that will help you reach your goals. Try a photo- or video-vote contest if your goal is to collect user-generated content.
#4: Select the Right Software
Figure out what software you need to run and manage your contest. Look for software with built-in voter verification features, so everything is on the up and up.
If you want to collect email addresses or other contact information, use third-party software that will help you organize all of the data you collect.
If you'd like to increase engagement, run a Facebook timeline contest. Choose a comment/like importer tool that allows you to collect a Facebook user ID number and name from everyone who engages with your post.
Whatever type of contest you choose, remember you can use the information you collect for future marketing efforts.
#5: Set a Time Frame
Decide how long your contest will run and let your audience know.
Companies offering valuable prizes, like a trip to Paris for two, tend to let contests run for longer periods of time than those offering smaller or local prizes, like a meal or a one-night stay in a hotel. Some companies even do a weekly or monthly giveaway.
Palmer's Canada recently ran a "Celebrate the New Year Giveaway," during the month of January. At the top of the rules document, the contest period is listed, right down to the time zone.
How long your contest runs is up to you. Just make sure you share the time frame in all of your promotions.
#6: Create Rules
Write a description of how the winner will be chosen, such as randomly or by community vote.
For example, BroadStreet Publishing hosted a 21 Days of Love Valentine's Day giveaway. In the rules they state that "a winner will be chosen at random," among other considerations.
Consider including a rule that says voting is only part of the process, and a judge or panel of judges will determine the final winner. Make sure to include a line stating that if you suspect fraud, you have the right to determine the winner.
#7: Determine Who Can Enter
Are you a local business hoping to increase foot traffic to your store or restaurant? Consider limiting entries to people who live within a 50-mile radius of your business. You can also specify age ranges and even gender in your contest rules.
KLIM, a company that makes technical outdoor apparel, is looking for women to model its clothing. In the contest rules, they specify that they want family-friendly images and "No duck face selfies."

by Govind Agarwal @ SubmitedgeSEO

Fri Feb 10 21:19:19 PST 2017

If you turn the pages of Google’s history, you will see as many as 500 to 600 times; the search engine giant has changed its algorithms in a single year. It has brought in major updates like Panda and Penguin … Continue reading →

by Alok Singh @ Bloghashtag

The robots.txt file is also known as the robots exclusion protocol (REP) or standard, which is a text file that tells web robots which pages on your site to crawl. The robots exclusion protocol also includes directives like Meta robots, as well as page- sub directory, or site-wide instruction for how search engines should treat …

by Joseph Shih @ Twinword, Inc.

Tue Aug 29 23:39:16 PDT 2017

Knowing what keywords are being searched for can help you better title your precious videos. The worst fear is spending hours on planning, recording, and editing your video, but in the end not having it found by your target audience. Having the most searched keywords on YouTube related with your video will […]

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Thu Nov 19 03:00:54 PST 2015

Is your Pinterest account working for you?
Want to take your Pinterest marketing to the next level?
Tailoring your profile, boards and pins to appeal to your target audience will grow your followers and increase engagement.
In this article you'll discover six ways to improve your Pinterest marketing.
Listen to this article:
#1: Optimize Your Page
The best way to convince visitors to follow you is to optimize your Pinterest page. Here are some key areas to focus on.
Profile
For the business name, use your company's name or your name (if it's for your personal brand).
Upload a relevant profile image, such as your company logo or an image with your company's name. You want to make it easy for people to recognize your brand page. If it's a personal page, add a photo of you smiling or laughing.
Match your username with your business name. If the username is already taken or is too long, choose something similar to it or use an abbreviation.
Write a convincing bio. In 160 characters, describe your business and let people know about the types of images and content you share on your Pinterest page.
Add your town or city and other location details. This will help you attract local followers.
Add your website and social media details. Don't forget to add your website and Twitter account. This information will be displayed right below your profile image. Add your Facebook account only if it's a personal page. (You don't have the option to add a Facebook business page yet.)
Boards
Make sure that your page has at least 10 boards. Place your most important or popular boards in the top row. That way they're displayed above the fold, and people will see them immediately when they visit your brand page.
Optimize your boards by adding good board names, descriptions and cover images. Shake Up Learning's Pinterest boards have relevant cover images that contain the name of the board and their logo.
For your cover image, you can use an existing pin from the board or create a unique image, pin it and choose it as the board's cover image. In the image you can include the name of the board and a call to action asking people to check out the board or follow it.
Another option is to use a technique similar to pricing tables, where one option (usually the most popular) has a unique color so it stands out. To apply this tactic to your boards, use similar cover images for all of your boards but choose a unique image for your most popular board (or the one you want to drive followers to).
Also create a few secret boards so you can save images to pin publicly later on.
#2: Design Content to Support Goals
Before you can determine what to pin, think about your goals. They might be to drive engagement and build an audience or to drive traffic. Most businesses choose a primary goal (such as driving traffic) and a secondary goal that complements the primary goal (like gaining more followers).
Once you choose your goals, you can determine what to pin by reviewing your Pinterest analytics. To access this data, click the gear icon and choose Analytics from the drop-down menu.
Your analytics page has three sections: Your Pinterest Profile, Your Audience and Activity from [Your Website].
In the Your Pinterest Profile section, find out how your pins are performing. Your pins are categorized depending on the impressions, clicks, repins and likes they've received.
Depending on your goal, choose the category you want to view. If you want to drive engagement, for example, look for pins that have been repinned and liked most. If you want to drive more traffic, take a look at clicks.
Scroll down the page to see your most popular boards. You can also adjust the date to see how your pins have performed during longer or shorter time periods.
Next, visit the Your Audience section to look at your followers' demographics and interests. Browse the Demographics tab to look at the coun...

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Wed Oct 21 03:00:15 PDT 2015

Are you involved with influencer marketing campaigns?
Do you know how to meet disclosure and compliance requirements?
By following a few simple guidelines, you can maintain transparency while producing brand-sponsored content that engages consumers.
In this article you'll discover how to make sure your content meets Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Google requirements.
What Compliance Means for You
In September 2014 the FTC sent warning letters to more than 60 companies as part of what it called Operation Full Disclosure. While the warnings focused on print and broadcast advertisements, the move signaled that the commission may start regulating more companies on all media that it finds to be out of compliance with accepted standards and practices.
Listen to this article:
Take note of this positioning, especially when it comes to your digital advertising on social channels. The FTC issued updated guidance on .com Disclosures in March 2013, and gave its clearest direction yet in June 2015 for endorsement disclosures in its What People Are Asking FAQ page. Many see this as a necessary step of enforcement by the commission.
While the FTC monitors compliance with truth-in-advertising laws, your company must also work to stay abreast of regulations from other agencies and organizations (such as the FDA and Google) when producing compensated content. Compliance with these regulations ultimately falls on the sponsor rather than the content producer. Consequently, if you're working with bloggers or YouTube video bloggers, you must have audit mechanisms in place to ensure those producing content on your behalf maintain compliance.
Compliance, however, is not as difficult as it might seem. The following simple tips will help you keep your content compliant without making it stiff or unappealing to the consumer.
#1: FTC: Disclose Clearly and Conspicuously
The FTC really has only one guideline when it comes to disclosure: Disclose early, clearly and conspicuously.
When you publish blog posts, you should include a simple, clear and easy-to-find disclosure near the top of the post right below the title, as seen in this Almost Supermom post.
If you record or broadcast video content, it should at minimum have a clear and conspicuous disclosure right at the beginning. While not mandated, the FTC says disclosures that appear regularly throughout the video would be even better.
While the FTC also does not mandate specific wording of disclosures, it still requires disclosures, even in the shortest form of media. On Twitter, for example, include #ad in a tweet or "Ad:" at the beginning of your tweet. It's the safest way to comply when using short-form content.
While some companies worry that these disclosures will impact their content's authenticity, disclosure statements actually have the opposite effect. Used appropriately, disclosures note the influence that compensation may have on the person producing the content.
However, savvy readers recognize that compensated content is an effective way for creators to fund the creation of content. And ethical bloggers will only accept compensation for content their readers want to consume in the first place.
#2: Google: Use NoFollow Tags for Links in Sponsored Posts
Google, the arbiter of all things search, has worked for years to keep compensated content from unduly affecting search rankings. To that end, you should ensure all of the links in a compensated blog post contain NoFollow tags. This designation tells Google's algorithm to ignore those links when calculating page rank for the links' target pages.
You can insert this link manually by adding rel="nofollow" in the HTML code. The result looks like this:
Many online publishing systems make this easier with plugins that manage the tagging process automatically. A search for "NoFollow" in the WordPress plugin library yielded 298 results.

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Mon Jan 04 02:00:18 PST 2016

Are you struggling to grow your Pinterest following?
Are your Pinterest boards performing?
Adding the right types of boards to your Pinterest profile will help increase your visibility and followers.
In this article you'll discover how to create Pinterest boards people want to follow.
Listen to this article:
#1: Stay Relevant With Evergreen Content
Boards with evergreen content are important for attracting Pinterest users, and they remain both relevant and interesting to people year-round.
Having a Christmas board during the holiday season is normally a good strategy. Ideas for gifts, decorations and food will likely go over well in those few weeks. Come December 26, however, that board will lose a lot of allure for most users.
While you'll occasionally get a stray pinner who is interested and saves the board for next year, most users won't be too invested after the holiday has passed.
Ideally, it's best to have a large number of boards featuring content that will perform well for longer periods of time. This content will stay relevant, and you can anchor your boards and followers through Halloween jack-o-lantern patterns and stocking stuffer recommendations in December.
For example, Food and Wine's evergreen boards Best Brunch Recipes and Grilling drastically outnumber Halloween Party Ideas in the number of pins.
Long-term, you'll want both new users and current followers to engage with your pins and follow your boards so they'll continue to be exposed to your content and share it.
Evergreen boards are ideal for this purpose. They allow you to push out new content to boards with plenty of followers, getting increased exposure and staying relevant and active.
If you curate boards that offer value for longer periods of time, you'll consistently gain more followers.
#2: Appeal to Pinners With Current Trends
Though it's important to have a solid base of evergreen boards on Pinterest, it can also be hugely beneficial to have a few boards focused on current trends.
Whether you dedicate a new board to gifts under $30 for the holiday season or create a board for your best-selling items throughout the year, having at least one immediately relevant board can help catch users' interest. Create a current trends board to promote your most popular or newest items.
Sephora uses this tactic with their Trending Now board, which showcases their most popular and talked-about products.
They also have Makeup of the Day and Today's Obsession boards that capitalize on this same idea, promoting relevant content that users would be interested in right now.
Plenty of Pinterest users want to keep up with the latest trends, so if you have a current trends board that you update regularly, you can grab a lot of followers.
Every time you update this board, you're distributing pins of your most popular or newest items for followers to see, increasing the chance that they'll repin and share them with their own followers and the rest of the Pinterest world.
Thanks largely to the sense of urgency, current trends boards are a great way to feature your products and drive sales on Pinterest. The only struggle with this type of board is that you need to update it consistently. If you don't, your "trending now" theme will become outdated, and you'll lose user interest and followers quickly.
Stay on top of your current trends board to increase followers with content that is important and timely now.
#3: Feature How-To Ideas to Draw In DIYers
As a site full of recipes, home décor and style recommendations, Pinterest hosts a large amount of DIY content. You can learn how to wear a pashmina 20 different ways, make an apple pie from scratch and update your kitchen with nothing more than spray paint and super glue (though, for the record, not all ideas are necessarily advisable).
It's no secret that Pinterest and many of its pinners love the DIY and how-to ideas that show up all over the ...

by @ Social Media Marketing Podcast helps your business thrive with social media

Fri Nov 23 03:00:24 PST 2012

Have you ever considered publishing your own eBook?
Are you wondering what the advantages are for marketers?
To learn more about publishing your own eBook, I interview Jim Kukral for this episode of the Social Media Marketing podcast.
More About This Show
The Social Media Marketing podcast is a show from Social Media Examiner.
It's designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.
The show format is on-demand talk radio (also known as podcasting).
In this episode, I interview Jim Kukral, founder of Digital Book Launch and Author Marketing Club, and author of the book Attention! This Book Will Make You Money and many eBooks including Book Marketing for Kindle Authors.
Jim shares his experiences with publishing in print and digital form.
You'll learn about the various book publishing options and what it could mean for your business.
Share your feedback, read the show notes and get the links mentioned in this episode below!
Listen Now
You can also subscribe via iTunes, RSS, or Stitcher.
Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show:
The World of Publishing
Jim explains why marketers should care about what's happening in book publishing. You'll learn how books can increase your credibility and help you close business deals.
You have to give people enough information to incite them to give you their business and publishing a book can help you do this. A book is the best business card you will ever have. It's a game-changer.
Listen to the show to discover why now it's easier than ever to publish a book in print or digital form.
The benefits of an eBook
Before Content Management Systems (CMS) existed, the only people who could put content online were those who could write HTML. Today anyone can put their thoughts and expertise out there.
Jim explains that to publish a book today, you don't need to have a publisher and you don't need to print books that sit in a warehouse.
Publishers are in the business of paper and the world is changing to digital.
Of course you can still do print and print-on-demand. But why print 10,000 to 20,000 copies of a book to sit in a warehouse, when publishing an eBook is so much easier?
According to Jeff Bezos, there are currently more digital books than print books.
Listen to the show to find out why nonfiction is still outselling fiction.
Where consumers find eBooks
Jim talks about how consumers find eBooks on Amazon and other websites like Smashwords, Barnes and Noble and Apple.
There is also a growing number of websites that recommend their favorite Kindle books. And if you already like an eBook, you can recommend it or loan it to someone through your Kindle device.
Amazon has the Kindle Direct Publishing Select Program. On this program, authors give Amazon a 90-day exclusive right to sell the eBook. In return, Amazon allows you to give your eBook away for free for up to 5 days during this 90-day period.
Jim shares how to discover the top 100 free eBooks on Amazon.
Listen to the show to find out the benefits of giving away your eBook.
How your book can be a lead-generator
You'll learn how to use your book to bring in business. Giving your book away for free is a great lead-generation tool.
As a marketer, Jim has calls to action in his books. You'll learn how he uses this tactic to leverage lead generation with his free books.
When someone reads your book and reaches out to you, they are usually "warm leads." They are more likely to do business with you.
Another benefit is that people feel they know you after reading your book. This makes it easier for you to connect with them.
Listen to the show to find out how books are lead-generators.
How the financials work from the author's perspective
You'll learn about the money you can earn with your book, depending on how you publish it.
For printed books,

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Mon Jul 18 02:00:57 PDT 2016

Do you use Slack?
Want to streamline communication with team members and clients?
There are a number of third-party apps and add-ons to help you customize Slack to fit your marketing team's needs.
In this article, you'll discover eight apps for social media marketers using Slack.
Listen to this article:
#1: Monitor Your Twitter Feed
With the Twitter integration, you can send all of the updates from your Twitter feed directly to a Slack channel. This includes direct messages, mentions, replies, and retweets.
You can also monitor outgoing tweets from your Twitter account. Social media marketers can use this integration as a Twitter dashboard.
#2: Collaborate With Team Members With Hootsuite
Hootsuite has more than 150 app integrations, including Slack. Installing the Hootsuite Slack app lets you send a social post from your Hootsuite dashboard directly to a Slack channel.
Note that the app doesn't allow you to send posts from your dashboard directly to a Slack user. However, through a Slack channel, the app lets you collaborate with your team and get the right response for particular social posts.
#3: Monitor Subscribers' Social Details With Drift
Drift is a live chat service that can be hosted on your website. It lets you chat directly with website users. While the stand-alone product is not particularly helpful for social media marketers, its Slack app is a handy tool.
Drift's Slack integration can be connected to your MailChimp account. Once you set this up, you'll receive a notification on your Slack channel every time somebody subscribes. The notifications contain details about subscribers' social media accounts, which is handy if you want to reach out to them that way. You can then use this integration to initiate conversations with them.
#4: Find Trending Stories With Nuzzel
Nuzzel lets you see the most shared content from your friends' feeds and your friends' friends' feeds. This makes the content that you read very personal and reflective of the topics you're interested in. Think of it as a newspaper service that curates content based on your interests.
Nuzzel lets you connect your Facebook and Twitter accounts. Once you do that, it shows you the most popular content in your timeline.
With the Nuzzel Slack integration, you can get notifications of popular content in your niche through a Slack channel. This is helpful when you're curating content that you want to share across your social profiles.
#5: Integrate RSS Feeds
As a social media marketer, you need to follow multiple blogs, influencers, and official news from social platforms to stay on top of industry news, and subscribing to RSS feeds will help you do that. Every time new content pops up on the blogs or sites that you follow, the RSS feeds will give you an update.
You can integrate RSS feeds into Slack to ensure that you receive new updates. Once you subscribe to an RSS feed, Slack will automatically update the feed and post new content in a Slack channel.
#6: Send Short Video With Giphy
GIFs are a great way to convey your thoughts or appreciation to people on social media, as they combine two crucial things: your message and a pop-culture reference, which shows a human side to your business.
By installing Giphy on Slack, you won't have to switch platforms to search for the right GIF when you're communicating with people on Slack. For example, if you type in "/giphy im busy," you might get a GIF like this one.
#7: Run Polls With Open Agora
Slack is known for team collaboration. But how many times do you see all of the communication happening in a channel? It's easy for people to start ignoring stuff unless it's directed toward them.
If you need your team's help, polls are a great way to share opinions. It could be anything from deciding whether to run a social campaign or providing an extra six months of onsite warranty to a user.

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Thu Nov 05 03:00:49 PST 2015

Have you considered collaborating with your fans?
Do you know how to create a user-generated content campaign?
When you include fans, you not only increase brand awareness and reach, but also collect great content that can be repurposed to achieve other business goals.
In this article you'll discover how to run a successful user-generated content campaign for your business in seven steps.
Listen to this article:
Why Fan Content?
Social media and smartphones have made it easy for customers to create high-quality content and distribute it to their personal networks. In many ways, social sharing has become modern-day word-of-mouth marketing. Every time customers share a photo of your products or services, your brand receives a mark of social validation. These posts serve as online endorsements that are interpreted as objective and authentic.
Contests and campaigns are among the most effective ways to encourage fans to post photos and videos about your brand. Why? Interactive social campaigns give your customers an explicit reason to upload and share great content with their social followings. In turn, their followers will engage with this content and your brand's organic reach will grow.
Here's how to run a social campaign to generate great fan content for your brand.
#1: Find or Create an Evergreen Hashtag
To track the content that your customers will post online, you need to create an evergreen hashtag that represents your brand as a whole. It can be anything from #yourbrandname (#Nike, for example) to #missionstatement (#JustDoIt). Even if you haven't promoted a brand hashtag, your customers may have created one for you.
Once you've created or identified your hashtag, make sure that it's highly visible. Display it in your social posts, in your email signatures, on package inserts and on your website. The goal is to make it easy for customers to discover your hashtag and interact with your brand.
Here, One Kings Lane has placed their branded hashtag, #MyOKLstyle, on a package insert that encourages customers to share their post-purchase experience online.
#2: Map Campaign Goals to Business Goals
After you've established your evergreen hashtag, outline what you want your social campaign to accomplish. Why are you asking customers to post and share photos of your products or services online?
The goal of your campaign can be anything. Decide whether you want to increase followers on Instagram, generate more leads, increase sales or simply collect more usable content for your brand. What's important is to find your focus and identify how your social campaign will help you achieve your business goals.
Country Club Prep wanted to augment their brand lifestyle by using customer photos to represent their preppy style. Using the hashtag #PrepInABox, the company created a customer photo gallery on their website to showcase how their products are worn by everyday people.
#3: Choose Social Networks
Now that you've laid the foundation for your campaign, you need to decide which social platforms to use for conducting your collection and outreach. Remember that the channels you choose should reflect your target audience. The best place to reach potential customers is on the platforms that they're already active on.
Don't know where to start? Here's a breakdown of the demographics for each social network.
Decide what network is the best fit for your target audience and start asking customers to submit content to your campaign.
#4: Reward Loyal Customers
Offering prizes, free product samples, discounts or even public recognition is a great way to boost participation in your campaign. These are all strong incentives to get your customers posting.
To spark conversation around your social campaign online, it's important to recognize your most loyal customers. Thank them for being brand advocates and delight them with prizes and discounts.

by @ Social Media Marketing Podcast helps your business thrive with social media

Fri Feb 24 03:00:05 PST 2017

Do you create videos to promote your business?
Have you considered starting a regular video blog?
To explore vlogging, I interview Amy Schmittauer.
More About This Show
The Social Media Marketing podcast is an on-demand talk radio show from Social Media Examiner. It's designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.
In this episode, I interview Amy Schmittauer, an online video expert. She founded Vlog Boss Studios and regularly produces awesome content for her YouTube channel, Savvy Sexy Social. She's also the author of the brand-new book, Vlog Like a Boss: How to Kill It Online with Video Blogging.
Amy explores how video blogging can help your business.
You'll discover what you need to start your own video blog.
Share your feedback, read the show notes, and get the links mentioned in this episode below.
Listen Now
You can also subscribe via iTunes, RSS, or Stitcher.
Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show:
Vlog Like a Boss
What Is Vlogging?
The term vlog builds off the word blog, and a vlog is simply a blog in video form. In a vlog, you can share anything you might do in a blog post, such as a tutorial or a story from your life.
Consistency is best for vlogging. If you post a vlog here and there, you won't gain much traction. Amy says most vlogs that do well have a regular schedule.
I ask Amy about how using YouTube for vlogging is different from the other ways people use YouTube. Amy says the purpose of a vlog is to help people discover you. Videos that may be suitable for YouTube but that don't help people discover you, such as a product commercial or an introduction to your company, don't make great vlog posts. To be discovered, think of the users who are searching for a concern, a specialty, or the answer to a question. Think about what a potential customer or audience member might want to know, create a video about the topic, and upload it to YouTube.
Listen to the show to discover Amy's thoughts about vlogging on mobile apps like Snapchat and Instagram, which have video and social.
Amy's Vlog
When Amy launched Savvy Sexy Social, she was just getting started as a social media marketer. She thought teaching people the best way to do things on social media would to attract an audience and potential clients. She wanted her vlog to be informative and fun. She didn't want social media to feel like a chore.
To juggle her content marketing with her client work, Amy says she scheduled her vlog posts to appear three days a week but she created the week's videos all in one day. She would pick three topics (which could be an app, a product, or a general social media tip), record the videos sitting in front of her bookshelf, and then edit and schedule them for the rest of the week.
Amy emphasizes that people didn't have to know who she was to find her videos via search. They just needed to have a question about a topic in her videos. For instance, Amy created a video about a hack to make tweets a little longer. She thought the topic was something new that people didn't know much about, and the video became one of her popular vlog posts. The video's headline focused on the Twitter tip but the video also introduced viewers to Amy.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJRp22IXqXY
Amy shares the simple vlog format she used for a long time. She introduced her topic, delivered information about the topic that her viewers would value, and gave an actionable item that would give them results right away. Then she wrapped up with, "By the way, I'm Amy. Hope you can subscribe and stay tuned."
In the last year, Amy says she's been having fun with her format so her community could get to know her a little more personally. For instance, throughout January, she documented the journey of launching a book. This approach was more of a lifecasting vlog, but her audience was learning through Amy's experience.

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Thu Aug 13 03:00:33 PDT 2015

Do you want to increase your Facebook engagement?
Interested in discovering what content appeals to your audience?
With Facebook Audience Insights, you can get the information you need to tailor content to your audience's preferences.
In this article you'll find out how to use Audience Insights to optimize your Facebook posts.
Why Facebook Audience Insights?
Facebook Audience Insights is a social media marketer's dream come true. It was designed as a tool for targeting Facebook ads, but it also provides a treasure trove of data on your current audience, target market and competitors' customer bases.
Listen to this article:
Simply plug in your page or a heap of desired demographic data, including age, gender, location, interests, finances, employment, income, family structure, purchase behavior and more.
Here are some ways to tap into this data to optimize Facebook posts for your audience, increasing organic reach and engagement without advertising.
#1: Use Lifestyle Data to Create Personas
The Lifestyle data in Audience Insights creates mini-personas based on demographic data, purchase behavior, brand affinity and interests. Though the personas are rather broad, they lay the foundation for a comprehensive picture of who your audience is.
The Apple Pie Families lifestyle persona comprises 7% of the U.S. Facebook audience over age 18. Facebook defines this persona as "upper-middle class couples with school-age children . . . homeowners, often minivan drivers and avid radio listeners."
From this snippet of information, you can picture the lives of this audience. You can envision parents driving their children to school in the morning, listening to the radio. After family dinners, the children retreat to their rooms to do their homework on weeknights. You can speculate these are parents who are highly present in their children's lives. They are involved, informed, and in some ways, defined by their status as parents.
So how does this information translate into writing posts that will capture this audience's attention and motivate them to act? You do it on their terms. Consider what is likely on their minds right now, and how your brand can assist in quelling their anxieties and make their life better overall.
When it comes to audience personas, it's all about framing. Say you're running a promotion. Could you adjust the timeframe and the scope of the promotion to frame it as a back-to-school campaign? Or more broadly, how could the campaign speak to the everyday joys and challenges of parenthood?
For example, the largest Facebook audience segment for Kraft Foods is Apple Pie Families. In this August post the company includes a link to kid-friendly recipes.
Understanding that at the time, a large segment of the audience was likely focused on sending the kids back to school, Kraft Foods adjusted their content not only to grab their audience's attention, but also to provide information people could put into action.
#2: Gauge Interests and Affiliations With Page Likes
You can learn a lot about an audience segment based on the Facebook pages they like. Think of this information less like a report on other businesses and more like a key interest breakdown.
The Page Likes section of Facebook Audience Insights is comprised of the top pages liked in each category and the pages most likely to be relevant to your audience. This combined data helps you continue piecing together a comprehensive persona.
Page Likes let you see insight into what your audience's political affiliations are, which media outlets they follow, where they shop, what organizations they support, what apps they use and more.
From a macro perspective, study this data to get into the heads of your audience. Add to the picture you started to form from Lifestyle data. What do these people talk about with their friends? How do they spend their spare time? What issues do they care about?

by @ Social Media Marketing Podcast helps your business thrive with social media

Fri May 09 03:00:13 PDT 2014

Do you like to get comments on your blog?
Have you ever wondered if you should allow comments or shut them down?
To learn about why blog comments are valuable to your business, I interview Mark Schaefer and Tim McDonald for this episode of the Social Media Marketing podcast.
More About This Show
The Social Media Marketing podcast is a show from Social Media Examiner.
It's designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.
The show format is on-demand talk radio (also known as podcasting).
In this episode, I interview Mark Schaefer, who is a college educator and author of four books. His blog is called Grow and his latest book is Social Media Explained. Tim McDonald is the director of community at the Huffington Post, founder of My Community Manager and a member of the No Kid Hungry Social Council.
Mark and Tim share what comments mean to their blogs, and some of the challenges they face with moderation.
You'll discover the upside of blog comments, how you can use them to improve your business and moderation tactics for different-sized blogs.
Share your feedback, read the show notes and get the links mentioned in this episode below!
Listen Now
You can also subscribe via iTunes, RSS, or Stitcher.
Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show:
Blog Comments
A long time ago, Seth Godin shocked the industry when he decided to shut down comments on his blog. He didn't really care for comments—for him it was more about generating daily content.
More recently, Brian Clark and his team at Copyblogger decided to shut down their blog comments. As a result of this, there has been a lot of interesting dialogue in this space.
The upside of blog comments
Mark explains how there are a lot of different business reasons behind blogs, and it's up to each individual business to make the decision whether to have comments on their blog.
He says that there are probably some very good economic reasons why Copyblogger decided to remove comments, but Mark thinks that blog comments are the economic engine.
The community that Mark has built on his blog has led to many different business benefits for him and his community. You can get to know people in the comment area, which can lead to collaborations, customers and suppliers.
Mark feels that a lot of influence takes place in the blog communities, where you can develop strong relationships compared to the ones you make on Twitter or Facebook.
You'll hear other great benefits that come from comments on your blog, and why Mark sees them as a gift every day.
The Huffington Post has a little bit of a different viewpoint, just because of their sheer size. They face a bigger challenge because of the number of comments they get every day. It's hard for them to actually interact and engage with every single commenter.
Tim explains at this point, it's a matter of them looking at some of the prolific commenters on their site and working with them. They've found that some commenters don't want to write for them, they are happy just commenting.
Listen to the show to find out the cost of engagement, and why you can engage yourself broke.
Some of the challenges the Huffington Post faces with blog comments
Tim says that the biggest issue for them is to figure out how to allow people to share and express their thoughts on content, while appreciating that the standard for commenting is different from their editorial standards.
They have to find ways to moderate this effectively with the different languages, countries and time zones.
You can't replace a human when it comes comment moderation. You need to find a balance between using technology, combined with what people can do.
You'll hear how the Huffington Post deals with heated dialogue and negative comments on their blogs.
When it comes to dealing with spam, last year they made all commenters authenticate ...

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Wed Jan 13 03:00:17 PST 2016

Do you want to reach local customers on social media?
Are you monitoring the online conversations near your business?
Geo-specific social media monitoring tools help businesses engage with customers who are close to their brick-and-mortar stores.
In this article I'll share six location-based monitoring tools to use for local social media marketing.
Why Use Location-Based Monitoring Tools?
Geo-specific social media monitoring tools are different from the conventional keyword-based monitoring tools in many respects. For one thing, these tools offer a clear picture of what's happening at a particular location, which helps you reach out to local audiences. Plus, they allow you to connect better with your community by engaging with local social media influencers and leveraging local hashtags.
Listen to this article:
If you do social media for a company with multiple locations, here are some excellent tools to explore.
#1: Search Real-time Feeds With Geofeedia
Geofeedia allows you to search real-time social feeds by location to discover geolocation social media posts from anywhere worldwide. You also have the ability to monitor multiple locations to archive, curate and share your content.
Simply draw a custom perimeter or enter an address on Geofeedia's digital map. It will then display all social content posted by users in that particular area. While the tool searches by location first, you also have the ability to filter your search by keywords, date, time, users and more, across various social media channels including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Flickr and YouTube.
Discover what's trending in an area. Then leverage those trends by including the right keywords and hashtags into your social conversations.
Geofeedia offers custom social media monitoring solutions for different industries. The pricing depends on the features you require, as well as the number of locations you want to monitor.
#2: Engage and Target Customers With WeLink
If you're looking for a cutting-edge social monitoring tool for geo-specificity, WeLink is an excellent option. It lets you engage your potential customers with targeted ads and instant offers on their preferred social media channels.
This easy-to-use tool combines keyword-based monitoring with geo-specific listening to offer enterprise-grade location-based social monitoring solutions. The result is a hybrid solution, which uses cellular data mining and WiFi to help you discover and collect all social chatter within your selected area. Gather feeds from all popular social channels using this tool.
Use WeLink across various verticals including event management, retail, malls, airlines, hospitality, sports teams and stadiums, schools, security and law enforcement, etc.
WeLink offers custom pricing, depending on the features you require.
#3: Listen to Trends With Sysomos
Sysomos enables you to listen to what's trending locally and understand what your customers are talking about. Use this location-based tool to discover and dig into social content posted by local influencers.
Sysomos will gather digital content from popular social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn, as well as posts on blogs and forums. It then collects and displays insightful actionable data in a single platform.
Filter digital conversations by both keywords and demographic information. This makes Sysomos particularly beneficial if you're targeting customers within a specific age group or gender, for instance. Discover which topics, trends and brands particularly interest your target audience, and then create marketing campaigns based around these areas.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2DpsHXh5rY
Sysomos differs from other location-based social media tools in many ways. For one thing, it collects both real-time and previously posted content on any topic across social networks. Plus, you have the ability to capture the conversations most r...

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Mon Jul 27 02:00:00 PDT 2015

Is your Pinterest marketing taking too much time?
Are you ready for a better Pinterest marketing plan?
Time-saving Pinterest marketing tactics can deliver more results with less effort.
In this article you'll discover six tactics to help you market on Pinterest in minutes a day.
Listen to this article:
Get Started on Pinterest
If you haven't already done so, set up your business on Pinterest. It's easy to get started.
First, sign up for a Pinterest business account and complete your profile. Be sure to upload the proper profile image. Then verify your website with your Pinterest account.
Next, add Pin It and Follow buttons, as well as widgets, to your website. Plus, enable rich pins, depending on your content type.
Once this is done, you're ready to get moving on your Pinterest marketing.
Here are six tactics to manage your time and be more productive on Pinterest.
#1: Repin for a Few Minutes Each Day
Take around three minutes each day to curate and repin to your Pinterest boards.
Enter keywords for your niche or industry in Pinterest search.
Based on your initial search, Pinterest will offer additional search term suggestions. Just click on any of the words under the search bar to add them. This will refresh the search, giving you new possible content, associated with the extra keyword, to repin. You'll easily find the best content to share.
To get noticed on Pinterest, you need to pin and repin regularly. Just check the links on any pins to make sure they're active and relevant before you share them.
If you spend 3 minutes a day (15 minutes a week) repinning, you will increase the number of repins on your boards significantly. Let's say you have 10 boards. Target 3 boards and repin 2 pins on each one every weekday. That's 6 pins a day and 30 pins a week. Time investment: 15 minutes a week.
#2: Schedule Pins to Publish on Weekends
To keep your Pinterest account active on the weekend, schedule pins. I recommend you do this for five minutes on Fridays, after you post your daily pins.
Choose a scheduling tool for Pinterest such as Viralwoot, Tailwind or Buffer to post images at any time. I use Tailwind, which allows me to schedule pins on the platform or through a browser extension.
Schedule at least six pins over two or three different boards to post throughout the weekend.
#3: Follow Relevant Pinners
For successful Pinterest marketing, you must follow pinners in your niche. You can find them with Pinterest search.
Follow three to five new pinners every day. However, don't just follow anyone. Once you find potential pinners to follow, review their profiles and check their Pinterest activities to see if they'll add value to your Pinterest marketing.
Spend 5 minutes a day searching for new pinners to follow, which totals 25 minutes a week.
#4: Comment on a Pin a Day
Keep your eyes open for relevant pins on which you can offer input. Sure, you can like as many pins as you want. However, if a pin inspires you, add something to the conversation. Aim for one comment a day.
Your comments can be as short or as long as you'd like. Just make sure your comment is pertinent and not self-promotional.
If you have newfound data to support your comment, that's great thing to add. I often comment on others' pins and leave a link to other content. This way, I add value to the pin by providing extra resources.
Take 3 minutes a day to post one value-added comment, which is 15 minutes a week devoted to commenting.
#5: Create Pinterest Images in Batches
Create images of your own to pin to your Pinterest boards. These can be images to go along with blog posts or stand-alone graphics.
Pinterest layout supports taller images than any other formats. Ideal size for a pin is 735 x 1102 pixels. There are tools such as Canva to help you create pins quickly and easily. For example, on Canva select the default Pinterest graphics layout and create your design.

by @ Social Media Marketing Podcast helps your business thrive with social media

Fri Dec 07 03:00:35 PST 2012

Have you ever dreamed of having your own show?
Do you want to know how to get started?
There is no easier way to build a platform quickly.
To learn more about what goes into starting your own show, this episode of the Social Media Marketing podcast goes deep on the subject.
More About This Show
The Social Media Marketing podcast is a show from Social Media Examiner.
It's designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.
The show format is on-demand talk radio (also known as podcasting).
In this episode, you'll learn the different formats involved in both audio and video shows and the key ingredients you must have to make it a success.
Share your feedback, read the show notes and get the links mentioned in this episode below!
Listen Now
You can also subscribe via iTunes, RSS, or Stitcher.
Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show:
How to Create Your Own Online Show
There are some amazing talk show hosts who do incredible things by simply talking to other people. Think about Jay Leno, Howard Stern, Dr. Phil, Ellen DeGeneres and Oprah Winfrey.
Oprah Winfrey started out with a half-hour, low-rated talk show in Chicago, and look at her now. The secret to her success is interviewing people.
In the social media world, the big name that comes to mind is Gary Vaynerchuk. He became famous for Wine Library TV. He sat behind a camera in his wine library store and he talked about wine. He also had interesting guests who talked to him about wine.
Gary has a really cool personality, which led to incredible opportunities for him. As a result of him simply talking about wine, he got a $1 million book contract.
If you think of the podcasters you listen to regularly, many of them have shows where there is more than one person and there is dialogue going back and forth.
The secret source of everything I've ever done is interviews. Interviews have been the key to Social Media Examiner's growth.
When I launched Social Media Examiner in October 2009, I took my friend Jeff, who's a video guy, to BlogWorld. And when I went to a MarketingProfs conference in Chicago, I took my flip camera and interviewed people.
I got behind the camera and talked to the likes of Chris Brogan, Steve Rubel, Jessie Stay and a lot of other people for about 10 minutes each. These interviews catapulted Social Media Examiner to incredible success. Interviews weren't the reason for all the success, but they were extremely instrumental.
Listen to the show to find out why interviews are one of the reasons for Social Media Examiner's success.
My backstory
I never liked reading books in college, so to be able to pass tests, I had to arrange study groups with some of the smartest kids in class. By hosting the study group, I would learn enough to be able to ask questions to get the dialogue going.
From this experience, I discovered that I could learn something by interviewing people in my group. These techniques led to my future success.
One of my first companies was Stelzner Consulting. I was a writer for high-tech companies, where I interviewed engineers on the factory floors. It was my job to write materials to help the organization sell.
Before Social Media Examiner, I was known for writing white papers and I did a lot of teaching. In the early 2000s, I ran teleclasses, where 100-200 people would pay $39 to $59 to listen to me on the phone interviewing experts every month.
Listen to the show to learn how you could become the next Gary Vaynerchuk or Oprah Winfrey.
The benefits of having a show
When you start interviewing successful people, other people look at you and think "WOW! That person who is doing the interviewing must be really smart."
A great example is Derek Halpern of Social Triggers, who goes out of his way to reach out to scientists who do really interesting psychological research.

by @ Social Media Marketing Podcast helps your business thrive with social media

Fri Apr 03 03:00:31 PDT 2015

Do you reach out to influencers?
Want to create good relationships to increase your visibility and get more customers?
To learn how to work with influencers, I interview Doug Karr.
More About This Show
The Social Media Marketing podcast is an on-demand talk radio show from Social Media Examiner. It's designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.
In this episode I interview conversion expert Doug Karr, the author of Corporate Blogging for Dummies and founder of the Marketing Technology blog. Doug also co-hosts the Edge of the Web podcast.
Doug will explore influencer marketing and how to work with prominent people.
You'll discover how to identify and reach out to influencers, as well as develop relationships and campaigns that lead to sales.
Share your feedback, read the show notes and get the links mentioned in this episode below.
Listen Now
You can also subscribe via iTunes, RSS, or Stitcher. How to subscribe/review on iPhone.
Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show:
Influencer Marketing
How Doug became interested in influencer marketing
After Doug got out of the Navy in 1992, he started a newspaper and did direct and database marketing. Then about 12 years ago, he started a blog.
From a database marketing standpoint, Doug shares he's always been intrigued by the pockets or the gaps, and not the averages. In the direct mail days, the motto was "go after a certain age group, gender and neighborhood, and get 100% saturation." Doug found, over time, it was the smaller pockets of people who had higher conversion rates.
This is true in online marketing as well. People who do SEO optimize for huge keywords with massive search volumes. Maybe they rank, but they don't get any results (meaning business) out of it.
Influencer marketing is the same, in that people go after influencers. They spend a lot of money without seeing results, because they make significant errors as they select and research influencers.
Doug says he tells people who are transitioning from traditional to online media that he doesn't think a lot has changed. As marketers, it's all about building trust and satisfying clients.
Blogging and social media are great for that, because customers can now talk to people at different companies and get insight into their business through these channels. You build relationships virtually, then get those people to convert.
Listen to the show to hear what opportunities came to Doug from blogging.
How Doug defines influencer marketing
Doug believes influencers are people within our industry who already have established trust with an audience.
Let's say someone has an amazing audience you want to reach. The best way to get to that person's audience is to create an influencer marketing campaign and work with that influencer to help you promote your products and services.
The keys are audience (find an influencer whose audience matches what you need) and reach. Determine if the influencer's reach is wide enough to make your campaign sensible from a time and money standpoint.
Listen to the show to hear examples of good influencers to reach out to in the marketing and social media space.
The differences among reach, popularity and influence
Doug says half of the time, a company fails because they focus on reach and popularity, but not necessarily on influence.
Influence is not about retweets or shares. It's about conversions. If someone makes a purchase based on a person's advice, that person is an influencer.
When Doug works with an influencer, he looks at that person's target audience to see whether he or she has captivated their trust and made sales to them. One of the telltale signs that influencers are doing well is they've had the same sponsor on their site for 3 years; they don't switch them out every month.
Doug also cautions that before entering into a relationshi...

by @ Social Media Marketing Podcast helps your business thrive with social media

Fri Apr 17 03:00:20 PDT 2015

Do you want to stay on top of the latest marketing trends?
Looking to tap into the next big trend?
To explore marketing trends, I interview Rohit Bhargava.
More About This Show
The Social Media Marketing podcast is an on-demand talk radio show from Social Media Examiner. It's designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.
In this episode I interview Rohit Bhargava, the author of Personality Not Included and Likeonomics. He's also the founder and CEO of the Influential Marketing Group. His latest book is Non-Obvious: How to Think Different, Curate Ideas and Predict the Future.
In this episode Rohit explores why trends matter to marketers and reveals a few trends.
You'll discover what makes something a trend.
Share your feedback, read the show notes and get the links mentioned in this episode below.
Listen Now
You can also subscribe via iTunes, RSS, or Stitcher. How to subscribe/review on iPhone.
Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show:
Marketing Trends
How Rohit became interested in trends
Rohit spent many years working at marketing agencies and frequently crossed industries. For example, he'd work for a toothbrush brand in the morning and an enterprise data client in the afternoon. This is how he started making connections among industries and began thinking about trends. Rohit started writing trend reports in 2011.
Rohit's experience includes working with Leo Burnett in Australia and Ogilvy in the United States. He did digital strategy and even worked on Intel's first social media guidelines.
One of the biggest problems, Rohit explains, is a lot of trends are self-serving. "Imagine I have a company that sells hammers, and then I declare 2015 the year of hammers," he laughs. "How convenient is that?"
People declare trends based on whatever they sell so it helps them, but what they point to isn't actually a trend.
Rohit considers a trend to be an observation about the accelerating present. That means there are signs of something already happening that will become more important. A trend will either change the way consumers make decisions or change the way companies structure their business models or how they do business.
Listen to the show to discover one of the biggest mistakes many trend writers make.
Why marketers should care about trends
The biggest benefit to knowing about trends, Rohit explains, is to know when to pivot. The term pivot is frequently used improperly. For example, if someone sells bicycles and then becomes a coffee shop, it's not a pivot, it's a completely new business.
An actual pivot was seen when BMW, in addition to making cars, decided to start a program called DriveNow in which they rent electric cars. They're tapping into the trend of the sharing and collaborative economy, and experimenting with their business model. BMW is saying we still make super high-quality cars, but we now distribute them in different ways: we sell, lease and rent them.
That's smart, Rohit says. It's the way to look at something that's happening in the marketplace and see how it affects your business.
Marketers need to be on the lookout for trends and pivot accordingly, but also understand trends that are already happening.
Listen to the show to learn about Rohit's haystack method and the difference between trend curating and trendspotting.
Glanceable content
The trend of glanceable content is a reaction to our shrinking attention spans, Rohit explains. There's material out there, like BuzzFeed headlines, that tantalize us so much we can't help clicking on them.
But that alone doesn't make it a trend.
This idea of the shrinking attention span leads to innovation in unexpected places. There's a team of MIT researchers working on studies of glance behavior: how fast can we read something in a situation when we need to consume it quickly? For example,

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Thu Apr 14 03:00:42 PDT 2016

Wondering how to improve the impact of your social media images?
Looking for tools to optimize your visual content?
In this article you'll discover three little-known tools to analyze the effectiveness of your visuals before you use them in your social media marketing.
Listen to this article:
#1: Optimize for Conversion
Bannersnack is an online app that makes it easy to create banner ads. You can adapt its behavior-based analytics feature to optimize the images you use on your social channels.
First, you'll want to create a banner image using the tool's handy online editor. Then grab the embed code and add the image to your blog. After some time has passed, look at the heat map in Bannersnack to see where people clicked when engaging with that image.
Tweak your image until the heat map registers a high amount of activity. When you're happy with the engagement your image is receiving, download it and use it on all of your social media channels.
#2: Optimize for Visual Impression
VAS (Visual Attention Software) uses its science-based algorithm to simulate which parts of the image will likely draw people's attention during the first 3-5 seconds of viewing. It also will predict the path that viewers' eyes are likely to travel when looking at the image.
With the insights from VAS, you can enhance visual properties (such as edge and color contrast, brightness contrast, and faces) to draw attention to important areas of your image. Again, when you're happy with the predicted results, you can use your optimized image in your social media marketing.
Tip: It's a good idea to use VAS in tandem with Bannersnack until you identify industry-specific patterns to apply to your own visuals.
#3: Optimize for Accessibility
The Color Contrast Analyzer extension for Google Chrome not only will analyze color contrast on your web pages, but will also assess text within images and report on how well your text overlay can be seen. This is especially important for people with poor eyesight.
To use this tool to optimize your social media images, load your visuals to your blog so you can view them in a Chrome tab.
Then use the Color Contrast Analyzer extension to adjust the design until you're happy with the results and add the final versions of the images to your visual marketing library.
Where to Find Engagement Metrics for Visual Content
Now that you have some tools to help you optimize the design of your images, it's time to put them to the test. After you use visuals in your social media marketing, you'll need to measure the results to be sure you're hitting the mark.
Use the platform-specific metrics below to identify images that trigger engagement.
Twitter Media Engagements
On Twitter, media engagement is the metric that shows you the number of clicks to your image. It's hidden behind the Tweet Activity link, so you won't see it on the main Tweets section of your Twitter analytics dashboard.
To access it, open your Twitter Analytics and click on the Tweets tab at the top of the page. Then click on View Tweet Activity under the tweet you want to review. You'll see all of the tweet activity metrics, including media engagements.
Facebook Photo Views
After you attach a visual to a Facebook post, you can click on that post in Facebook Insights to see the number of views that image attracted.
Pinterest Clicks, Impressions, Repins, and Likes
All of the data from Pinterest is image-specific because there's not much there to analyze beyond images. You can see which images have generated the most clicks, impressions, repins, and likes with Pinterest analytics. Use what you learn to identify which types of images work best for you on the platform.
Instagram Likes and Comments
Instagram analytics is on the rise with many tools being launched. However, there's not much to analyze beyond likes and comments. There are no clicks here and I don't think Instagram r...

by Jeffrey_Smith @ SEO Design Solutions™ Blog

Fri May 19 00:59:15 PDT 2017

For the purpose of SEO, context is a definitive factor that can (1) elevate your website past others competing for similar or related keywords (2) build topical domain authority and (3) increase conversion by having a higher number of pages occupying a larger percentage of market share for related keywords and queries. Create Topical Relevance Read More

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Tue Jul 12 02:00:49 PDT 2016

Do you use Pinterest to generate revenue?
Have you considered using affiliate links on Pinterest?
Because Pinterest users are looking for useful and inspirational products, the platform is a natural place for marketers to share items and services they believe in.
In this article, you'll discover how to prepare for and use affiliate links in your Pinterest marketing.
Listen to this article:
Affiliate Links on Pinterest
Now that Pinterest has lifted the ban on using affiliate links, you're free to add as many pins with affiliate links to your Pinterest boards as you want. The key is to prepare your profile and add those pins strategically, so you make money and don't annoy or lose your followers.
Here's how to optimize your Pinterest profile and boards to support affiliate pins, properly add your affiliate links, and boost visibility for the boards that have affiliate pins on them.
#1: Optimize Pinterest Boards to Showcase Products
Before you start adding pins with affiliate links, you need to make sure the boards on your Pinterest profile share a branded look that represents your business.
You want the overall look of your Pinterest presence to tell people what you're about at a glance, without them having to do too much reading.
For example, Courtney Whitmore of Pizzazzerie is an author, blogger, entertainer, and food stylist. When you visit her Pinterest presence, it's easy to see that she is all about parties, fun, and entertainment.
In addition to being sure you use a clear description at the top of your Pinterest profile, you'll want to give each of your boards a title that relates to something your business or brand offers. Remember to use keywords in your board titles (and your pin descriptions) to show up in Pinterest search.
Next, populate each board with pins that you know your target audience will be interested in.
Beyond supporting a branded look, this approach will help you build a Pinterest profile that's ready to show off the best ideas and tips you have for your audience, making you a go-to resource.
Now you're ready to think about which boards are a natural fit for pins of your own products or products for which you're an affiliate.
#2: Add Affiliate Product Pins to Your Boards
First, choose the product you want to share and decide which board you'll pin it to. For example, if you have an affiliate link for miniature piñatas, you can pin it to a board full of products and decorating ideas for Cinco de Mayo parties.
After you pin the product, click the Edit button on the pin.
Now you can replace the original link in the Website box with your affiliate link.
Click Save and your pin is live with your affiliate link! Rinse and repeat these steps with other products.
#3: Increase Exposure for Affiliate Link Pins and Boards
After ensuring all of your affiliate links have been added correctly, you'll likely want to increase exposure for them.
While you can take advantage of promoted pins to get more eyes on individual affiliate pins, a great option for driving traffic to boards that have affiliate pins is to share them on your other social platforms.
Angela Davis from Frugal Living NW has a Pinterest profile that shares ways to save money.
She created a fashion board to share her favorite items from the Nordstrom Half-Yearly sale. She added a personal note to each pin description, telling her readers what she loved about the product. Her notes added authenticity and value to the pin.
When her board was complete, she hopped over to Facebook to let her readers know about the lookbook she created for the sale. They could find all of her favorite products plus her comments on her Pinterest board.
Keep in mind that it's important to promote affiliate product links authentically. Refrain from being salesy and remember that your primary job is to help readers or customers find products that are useful, inspirational,

by @ Social Media Marketing Podcast helps your business thrive with social media

Fri Apr 11 03:00:45 PDT 2014

Do you use Google+ for business?
Are you wondering how to promote your content on Google+?
To learn about Google+ tactics that are available to marketers, I interview Lynette Young for this episode of the Social Media Marketing podcast.
More About This Show
The Social Media Marketing podcast is a show from Social Media Examiner.
It's designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.
The show format is on-demand talk radio (also known as podcasting).
In this episode, I interview Lynette Young, author of Google+ for Small Businesses. Her agency, Purple Stripe, helps businesses thrive with social media. Lynette is a Google+ marketing expert who has more than 1.5 million followers on Google+.
Lynette shares why she got hooked on Google+, and how businesses can use the tools available to succeed on the platform.
You'll discover how to get your content to show up in Google, and how Google+ users are different than Facebook users.
Share your feedback, read the show notes and get the links mentioned in this episode below!
Listen Now
You can also subscribe via iTunes, RSS, or Stitcher.
Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show:
Google+ Marketing Tactics
How did you get hooked on Google+?
Lynette explains how she is always on the lookout for the next piece of digital publishing software, whether it be blogs in the late 90s or Twitter in 2004/05. She likes to explore what's new and the new places people go online to talk and build communities.
So when the first private beta invites for Google+ started to go out, Lynette spent 4 hours on the platform. She fell in love with it straight away and has stuck with it ever since.
Lynette says that when she started on Google+, she had a little more confidence than with other platforms because it's Google. She soon figured out the set of tools available and what they could offer for her as a person and as a marketer.
Listen to the show to find out why Lynette feels that Google+ is very anti-Apple.
The business benefits of using Google+
Lynette looks at Google+ as the Internet and part of Google. Right now they have about 60 products and Google+ is just one piece of it all. It's a way for Google to link all their products together.
When you are in the Google ecosystem, it's where you live for search, email, videos, etc. Lynette sees Google+ as a platform that touches everything she does on the Internet.
Since the platform launched, it's grown up in many ways and like it or not, Google owns quite a large chunk of the Internet. As marketers, we use a large number of their products in our everyday lives.
When you're signed into Google+, you receive alerts when you get new activity. This appears in the right-hand corner of your screen as a bell icon.
Lynette explains how it's not so much about the numbers you get, but what you do with them. So whenever you go to a Google property, you'll see these alerts. You'll hear why people are drawn into these numbers, even if they aren't on Google+.
Listen to the show to find out how Google attracts you into their ecosystem and tracks your activity.
What Facebook marketers need to know about Google+ users
Google+ is more of an interest-based network, whereas Facebook is the place where people connect with others they already know.
Lynette says that Google+ is more like Twitter or Reddit. Not in the form of how you can publish, but how the communities separate themselves and group together. As a marketer, this is what you want.
If you want to get your message out, you obviously want to gravitate toward people you know will meet your criteria and will hopefully want your product.
Lynette finds it a lot easier to reach these communities on Google+ than she does on Facebook.
You'll discover why published content on Google+ takes a different path than it does on Facebook,

by @ Social Media Marketing Podcast helps your business thrive with social media

Fri Jan 08 03:00:52 PST 2016

Are you amazed at how much social media has changed over the last few years?
Want to discover what's next?
To explore the evolution of social media, I interview Brian Solis.
More About This Show
The Social Media Marketing podcast is an on-demand talk radio show from Social Media Examiner. It's designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.
In this episode I interview Brian Solis, a principal analyst at the Altimeter Group. He's written eight books, including Engage and What's the Future of Business? His newest book is called X: The Experience When Business Meets Design.
Brian will explore how social media has changed and how it continues to evolve.
You'll discover how marketers can use moments of truth to engage their customers.
Share your feedback, read the show notes and get the links mentioned in this episode below.
Listen Now
You can also subscribe via iTunes, RSS, or Stitcher.
Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show:
Social Media Evolution
From Engage until now
Brian recalls that in the late 90s and early 2000s, he helped with development around what became social media and realized that two-way digital marketing aspect was going to be phenomenal.
He says his book Engage was the culmination of all that work put into a book designed to help anyone in marketing or business really understand how to become social.
After Engage, Brian says, the world started to change and technology started to accelerate. This is something he studies as both an analyst and an anthropologist.
Brian has continued to write books, do research and speak on how to bridge the world of brand or business with technology and people. He says social has become part of that process, as has mobile and digital transformation, wearables, etc.
When asked about major changes in social media that have taken place between his first book and today, Brian talks about creating an infographic called The Wheel of Disruption while he was writing What's the Future of Business? The infographic showed all of the things that were disrupting industries, with an emphasis on brand, marketing and engagement.
He explains that then and now, the three things Fred Wilson once called The Golden Triangle are at the core of everything.
Brian goes on to discuss how wearables, augmented reality and services like Uber, Instacart, Postmates, Amazon, Drone Delivery and Google Express are creating disruption not only on technology fronts, but also on behavioral and expectation fronts at a human level.
Listen to the show to hear Brian explain how the disruption happening today has grand implications for every business in every industry.
The importance of experience
Brian shares that while many marketers, brand strategists and executives say experience is one of the most important things to deliver, that means different things to different people. From great customer service to great product design, it's all over the map.
Brian believes that everything that happens when you buy, use, shop for or have a problem with something are moments that contribute to the overall experience.
Brian shares why he thinks we should be able to define and design experiences as part of business and branding to build better relationships, and why he believes experience is the next competitive advantage.
He says that while some savvy organizations have introduced efforts to define a brand experience (BX), a customer experience (CX) and a user experience (UX), all of these efforts are disparate. Thus, by default or by design, the experience is disconnected.
Listen to the show to hear why Brian wants to bring all experiences under one banner of X, where everything works together.
Businesses doing a great job with experience
Brian explains that he chose the companies he talks about in his book not because they are examples of holistic experiences,

by @ Social Media Marketing Podcast helps your business thrive with social media

Fri Nov 04 03:00:49 PDT 2016

Want to get more leads and subscribers?
Have you considered optimizing your opt-in forms?
To explore conversion rate optimization for your online forms, I interview Chris Dayley.
More About This Show
The Social Media Marketing podcast is an on-demand talk radio show from Social Media Examiner. It's designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.
In this episode, I interview Chris Dayley, who is the VP of site testing and optimization at Disruptive Advertising, an agency that specializes in site testing and analytics. Chris's clients include Fandango, Lids.com, and Citrix.
Chris explores conversion rate optimization and split testing.
You'll discover which elements to test for your opt-in forms.
Share your feedback, read the show notes, and get the links mentioned in this episode below.
Listen Now
You can also subscribe via iTunes, RSS, or Stitcher.
Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show:
Conversion Optimization
How Chris Got Into This Space
Chris got his start driving traffic to websites using search engine optimization (SEO), pay per click (PPC), and social media. The company he worked for was trying to figure out how to monetize their traffic because they were having a hard time getting visitors to convert.
Because no one at the company knew about conversion rate optimization, Chris picked it up as a pet project.
When he first proposed to test some changes to the site design, there was a lot of pushback from the site designers. After he ran his first round of tests, some of the pages began to see 10% to 15% lifts in conversion.
He fell in love with finding out how seemingly small changes could have a big impact on user behavior.
Listen to the show to hear the company's initial reaction to testing and the results they got from it.
Conversion Rate Optimization and Why It Matters
Chris explains that conversion rate optimization is a scientific way to figure out what your audience wants to see on your website in order to convert, and he notes that it should be half of any digital marketer's focus.
Driving traffic is only half the battle. While he used to assume that if he drove good traffic to a site, it was going to convert, years of testing have shown that a large portion of your audience won't convert unless you give them the experience they're seeking.
Conversion rate optimization is a way of testing different concepts and ideas on your site to find out what your audience actually wants to see.
Listen to the show to discover why we use conversion rate optimization at Social Media Examiner and the effect it's had on our marketing.
Where to Start Testing Opt-in Forms
When doing form optimization, whether it's opt-in, lead generation, or checkout forms, the first things to look at are imagery, color, and font sizes. Make sure your form stands out in contrast to the page and that the image or lack of image is helping your users, Chris says.
Chris recommends trying different variations of images, and to make sure the concepts are different, aren't distracting, and add some context to the offer.
For example, in Social Media Examiner's previous pop-up, there was no image, even though our provider OptinMonster and other web-based form providers such as LeadPages allow you to include an image. Chris recommended testing an image of the cover of the actual product on offer, a graphic representation of the title, and an icon representation (shown in the image below.)
The icon came out as the winner by a long shot!
When asked about how many elements to test at a time, Chris advises different approaches for different projects. There are basically four elements in an opt-in form: the headline, content, a potential image, and a button to opt in. With so few elements, each one will have a huge role in the conversion rate, and it's easy to separate them out and test them one at ...

by Russell Frazier @ Visigility

Mon Dec 05 11:24:06 PST 2016

This is the quickest method I’ve used to get found on Google. It takes just seconds. And you’ll want to do this every time you post new content. I’m going to show you how to get NEW website content to show up on Google search… Very Fast. And when you see your own results. You’ll feel […]

When you read a great blog post, do you ever think about how the writer put the piece of content together? Probably not, because you’re too impressed with the material to worry about the fine details. However, if you want to create blog posts that reach your audience in a significant way and encourage them […]

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Tue Sep 29 02:00:38 PDT 2015

Are your employees on LinkedIn?
Do they share your company's content with their networks?
Asking your employees to promote your company content on LinkedIn is a great way to reach more prospects and increase visibility.
In this article I'll explain how to help your employees share your content on LinkedIn.
#1: Promote the Program
The first step to starting a LinkedIn employee engagement program is to find and appoint a leader. Look for someone from marketing who's enthusiastic about LinkedIn and excited about this program. You'll want to choose a passionate leader who can motivate your employees and get them excited to participate.
Listen to this article:
Once you've established a leader, get a couple of employees on board before rolling out the program to the rest of your staff. Later on, after you work out the bugs and streamline the processes, these employees can promote the program and encourage others to participate.
Now you're ready to launch the program to everyone.
#2: Communicate the Goal
First, explain and outline your company's current digital marketing efforts and what it takes to get followers for your social media channels.
Then, make it clear that the program's overarching goal is for all employees to attract new followers and customers by representing the company as a cohesive team.
Finally, create a short but powerful mission statement that will engage employees in helping you to achieve the goal of your LinkedIn Employee Engagement Program.
#3: Highlight Participant Benefits
To get your employees' buy-in, share why their participation can benefit them personally and professionally. For example, the program can increase exposure to potential customers, drive more leads and increase sales, possibly resulting in higher bonuses or profit-sharing.
Additionally, participating in the program can enhance your employees' personal profiles, activities and visibility on LinkedIn, and they'll be seen as industry professionals. And it may even improve their reputation within the industry your company serves.
#4: Outline Profile and Engagement Expectations
Spend some time going over what you expect from employees who take part in the program. Keep in mind that you don't want to overload them with too much extra work.
Here are some tasks you might want to ask them to do:
Optimize Personal Profiles
It's important that employees have a complete and professional-looking LinkedIn profile. Ask them to update their profile with a company and job description (which may come from marketing).
You'll probably need to walk employees through how to optimize their LinkedIn profiles. Show them how to:
Claim a vanity URL.
Add or change their profile picture. A professional-looking profile image goes a long way toward making the right first impression on LinkedIn.
Set the correct industry description.
Update the Summary section and add rich media (especially if your company produces high-quality videos and other rich media).
Update the Experience section.
Link their current position to the LinkedIn company page (thus increasing your company's LinkedIn page rank in organic searches on Google).
Update and optimize their contact information.
Expand Personal Networks
Share how together as a team you'll be able to reach hundreds or thousands of people who may be interested in reading and engaging with the company's content. The larger their personal networks, the better.
Provide instructions on how and why your staff should connect with fellow employees, customers, partners, prospects and so on. Explain how this will help expand the reach of your company's content on LinkedIn.
You might share an example like the following:
"Say that 20 employees in the program have 200 connections. This means that potentially 4,000 people could see and engage with our content if we shared and promoted it. Even if only a small percentage of these 4,

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Thu Dec 17 03:00:22 PST 2015

Do you want better results from social media?
Have you considered researching your competitors?
If you're not getting the results you want from social media, a little research and the right tool can help you refine your social media strategy.
In this article, you’ll discover how to perform a detailed competitive analysis and improve your social strategy.
Why Competitor Analysis?
Competitor analysis lets you discover how your competitors use social media. You can see how your competitors position themselves on social media, what they share and how their audience responds. You can also find out what social media networks work best for your competitors, what information you should include in your social profile and page bios and what types of status updates get the most engagement.
Listen to this article:
While you can gain these insights for free on your own, it takes time to find multiple competitors' social accounts, collect all of the data (followers, engagement, etc.) and then analyze that data.
To show how using a tool can help you gather the data more quickly and present it in an easy-to-analyze format, this article uses Rival IQ as an example.
Now, let's look at how to do social media analysis and apply what you learn to improve your social media strategy.
#1: Create a Landscape With You and Your Competitors
To get started, you'll want to sign up for a free 14-day trial of Rival IQ's service. If you're just doing a one-time analysis of your competitors' social media strategy, you should be able to get it done before the free trial period ends.
Otherwise, you'll want to choose a plan that best fits your needs. For each company (including your own), you'll be able to analyze and monitor one account per social network (Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Instagram and YouTube).
Once you set up your account, create your first landscape by clicking the + button under the Landscape drop-down menu at the top left.
In the dialog box that appears, enter the name for your landscape and click the Create Landscape button.
Next, enter the website address for your company and select it from the drop-down list if it appears. Then click the Add to Landscape button. This will allow you to compare your social media presence and content against your competitors'.
After Rival IQ confirms that your company has been added, continue adding your top competitors. Enter each competitor's website address and click the Add to Landscape button each time. When you're finished adding companies, click Done Adding Companies.
When you click Done, your screen will refresh to show your landscape's dashboard. Rival IQ will confirm the accounts it has found for your company and your competitors. If the companies are new to their system, it might take a little while to update, but usually no more than 24 hours.
If you know that one of your competitors has an account on a network that Rival IQ didn't find, you can hover over it and suggest it to them. They'll usually add it within 24 hours.
In the above example, the only accounts Rival IQ didn't find were the ones that didn't exist for the specified companies. Once everything is set up, you're ready to start your analysis.
#2: Find Social Engagement Opportunities
Begin your analysis with the social networks where your competitors have profiles and pages. This should tell you at a glance if you're missing a network that might be beneficial for your social media strategy.
In this case, you might assume that out of all of the networks, Instagram is the least important because a few of your competitors don't have a presence there. But that might not always be true, which you'll see shortly.
In addition to seeing what social networks your competitors are on, check to see which ones they have the largest audiences on. You can do this by clicking the Cross-Channel link in the left sidebar and then clicking on Detailed Metrics at the to...

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Tue Dec 29 02:00:44 PST 2015

Are your headlines performing as well as you'd like?
Do you want to write more effective headlines?
Using a few simple techniques, you can craft headlines that capture attention and convince people to click through to your content.
In this article you’ll discover six tips for writing effective headlines that drive traffic.
Listen to this article:
#1: Begin With Numbers
Headlines containing numbers typically perform better than other types of headlines. A list-type post promises to be quick and easy to read, and that's important in today's busy world.
You can use a low number to illustrate how concise your article is, or a high number to illustrate how comprehensive it is. But don't use too high a number or you'll lose the benefit of the content appearing easy to consume.
Odd numbers generally perform better than even numbers, as they appear less conveniently packaged than even numbers, and the number seven works well in headlines.
Make sure you use a numeral rather than spell out the number. Numerals stand out better in headlines and take up less space.
#2: Highlight Value
Why should people read your post? What's in it for them? The benefit should be clear, simple and direct in the headline.
How-to headlines always work well, in part because they're so clear. The reader can see instantly the benefit to be gained by reading the article.
Your headline should promise something. And the more specific you can make that promise, the better.
It's an added bonus if you can incorporate drama, excitement or humor in the headline, but don't lose credibility. People distrust outrageous or unlikely claims, so make sure your benefit is genuine and believable.
#3: Pique Curiosity
Headlines with questions can be effective, provided you compose them the right way. The golden rule is never to ask a question that your reader can answer "no" to.
Likewise, if you answer the question in the headline, there is no need for people to read the article. They already know the answer.
The question in the following headline creates tension. Readers will want to know the answer, so they'll read the article to find out.
Questions arouse curiosity, which is a powerful emotion.
#4: Stay Away From Positive Superlatives
We're conditioned to always be positive in our communications. But is that tactic effective in headlines?
A study by Outbrain found that the average click-through rate on headlines containing negative superlatives ("never" or "worst," for example) performed 63% better than those containing positives (like "always" or "best").
In fact, headlines containing positive superlatives performed 29% worse than those without any superlatives. One reason is that the overuse of superlatives (such as best, fastest or cheapest) in marketing has led to them being ignored, or worse still, disbelieved.
Negative terms are more likely to be viewed as authentic and genuine.
#5: Add Adjectives and Power Words
Unlike superlatives, which can turn readers off, adjectives (if used correctly) can create interest.
Incorporate adjectives like beautiful, brilliant, effortless, essential, fun, horrifying, incredible, strange, useful and valuable in your headlines. These words grab your readers' attention and intrigue them sufficiently to read on.
To write more persuasive headlines, try these five power words: you, free, because, instantly and new. Beloved by copywriters, these words have been used in headlines for decades.
If you use these words in your headlines, you're pretty much guaranteed a boost in your click-through rates.
#6: Use Punctuation
The Outbrain study mentioned above also found that simply adding a hyphen or a colon to a headline increases click-through rates by 9%.
It's a simple technique to use. Place your main keyword before the colon or hyphen, and add your clickbait headline after it.
Note Optimal Headline Lengths

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Wed Aug 26 03:00:32 PDT 2015

Want to make sure your ads stand out on Facebook and Instagram?
Have you tried Carousel Ads?
While many businesses use Carousel Ads solely to promote products, the ads also provide an excellent opportunity to showcase your brand’s unique narrative.
In this article, I’ll share how to use storytelling in carousel ads to promote your products and stand out from your competitors.
Listen to this article:
#1: Grab Attention With the First Image
The first rule of storytelling (and advertising for that matter) is to start out strong. Be sure the first image in your carousel ad series grabs attention and makes sense on its own.
Since users may not scroll through all of the images in the series, you want to get your message across right away. Otherwise, you risk confusing your audience and wasting impressions.
For example, in Progressive's #ActYourAge carousel ads, the first image immediately stands out.
It uses a white background, which is very different from normal photography on the platform, and has a man playing with a baby's mobile (also known as a carousel). The picture is so unexpected and kooky, the user can't help but read the line below: "Dump your parents' car insurance company. #ActYourAge."
While your first image shouldn't rely on any of the others to get its point across, it should still be intriguing enough to get users to swipe through to the end.
#2: Make Them Swipe
With any story, the point is to keep the reader engaged throughout and ultimately to read through to the end. Just as authors want to keep their readers interested, the same is true with carousel ads.
Once you've hooked the user with the first image, encourage continued engagement with the other images. This gives your brand more exposure and increased recall.
This carousel ad by Tesco Foods certainly elicits the "I can't stop swiping" response. To see the entire photo users must swipe through all of them. This is a great example of drawing a user through a story and, in this case, a very delicious-looking one.
Test out this concept for your brand. Use Photoshop's splice tool (or play with pictures in your favorite design program) to cut separate images from a larger one.
#3: Create a Scene
Relating to your audience and evoking emotion are the other important parts of storytelling. To do these, provide the context necessary for users to feel like they're right there with you. Place them at the scene.
Choose photos carefully to create imagery for carousel ads. Then write copy to draw in your audience.
The TV series Wet Hot American Summer did a great job getting their audience members to envision themselves at Camp Firewood. Pictures show the characters hanging out and doing things with their friends. Plus the image and copy pairing is so clever that users not only picture themselves there, they also remember how they felt when they attended summer camp years ago.
Obviously it's easier to set the scene when you're advertising something with a plot, like a television show or movie. However, for products and services, figure out how your brand fits into your customers' lives and create a scene that demonstrates it.
For example, if you're advertising a shirt, rather than show still images of it, think about the lifetime of the shirt. It goes from fresh and new in a package to being worn to being cleaned to being borrowed by a friend, etc. Photos that showcase a story create a plot, which evokes emotion from your customers.
#4: Think Sequentially
The order of events is essential to story comprehension. A well-edited sequence provides a natural pace to the story within your ad. Help move your users through your story.
Showtime did a great job incorporating natural sequence into its recent ads around the second season of Penny Dreadful. In just four photos you can tell the story is about a man on the run. He shoots someone, says goodbye to his girlfriend and runs away to a church.

This is a guest post by Stefan Ivanovski The rise of online video is hard not to notice – especially in the past couple of years. The stats and predictions by themselves are pretty impressive. In 2016, Cisco’s white paper predicts that online video will account for 55% of the total consumer Internet traffic. There are billions […]

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Thu Jun 02 03:00:25 PDT 2016

Is there a blogger inside you, waiting to emerge?
Need tips for producing more content?
Writing quality content will help you attract more customers and increase your visibility.
In this article, you'll discover five ways to find more time to blog.
#1: Commit to a Niche
When you're committed to a particular niche, it's easier to write for the audience you want to attract because you've already conducted extensive research on most of the topics they're interested in.
An added bonus is to use their evolving interests to point you toward topics you haven't considered. If you notice that your target buyers are looking for advice you know nothing about, you know where to start expanding your knowledge.
Listen to this article:
For example, say you're selling artistic pieces for home decoration. You don't necessarily know everything about interior design, but your audience would appreciate advice in that area. In that case, you can research it. And if you can base the tips and arguments you share on your actual experience, the articles will be much more believable and your readers will trust you more.
#2: Limit Your Time on Distracting Sites
If you blog for business, you spend a lot of time online. You need to be aware of all of the emerging trends in your niche, and monitor the behavior and interests of your target audience. You also likely frequent Reddit, Facebook, and other sites to get inspiration for new blog articles. How often do you plan to spend only five minutes on these sites, only to lose track of the time?
That's why you need the Chrome plugin StayFocusd. You can use StayFocusd to prevent you from spending too much time on distracting websites.
It's easy to install and you can customize the settings for your own preferences. First, set the days you want StayFocusd to monitor. Then, decide how much time to give yourself for browsing. Finally, set a list of the sites you want the tool to block for you.
When you reach your time limit, you'll get an eye-opening message that prompts you to get back to work.
#3: Plan Your Articles With Mind Maps
When you find inspiration for an article, your first instinct is to sit down and write that piece as soon as possible. Wait! Once you get the initial idea for the post, you should plan the structure of your article. If you take the time to develop an outline, you'll significantly speed up the writing stage.
You can use an online mind mapping tool such as MindMup to create your outlines. Start with a unique and captivating headline, and then make notes for your intro. Finally, consider the main points you'll cover and create subheads for each of the different paragraphs you're going to write.
Use the outline as a guide, and remember that it's flexible. You can make adjustments to the outline as you work as long as you maintain a focused thread in your article.
#4: Use Tools to Curate Inspiring Content
Inspiration is everywhere online, and it can be difficult to keep track of and remember it all. That's where a tool such as Evernote or Pinterest comes in.
For example, you can pin all of the interesting online sources you encounter to themed inspiration boards. As your boards are populated with pins, look for a way to connect those pieces of inspiration into a complete article.
#5: Source Quotes From Industry Research and Influencers
When you support your tips and arguments with quotes from respected research resources and industry experts, you not only increase the value of your content, but also add depth and reliability.
Begin your article with a great quote to drive attention to the problems and solutions you're writing about. Then, in each paragraph, use a few short quotes to corroborate your points.
Remember, you'll need to credit each author and source you quote. Make sure you include proper attribution within the article.
In Conclusion
Many social media marketers and business owners get focused...

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Wed Aug 31 15:00:02 PDT 2016

Do you use Google Analytics?
Are you leveraging the many apps that work with Google Analytics?
Integrating data from third-party tools, plugins and platforms with Google Analytics helps you gain insight about your online marketing efforts.
In this article I'll share nine tips to help you get more out of Google Analytics.
Listen to this article:
You can also subscribe via RSS, Stitcher and iTunes. How to subscribe/review on iPhone.
#1: Add Google Analytics to WordPress
You can easily add Google Analytics to your self-hosted WordPress website using the Google Analytics by Yoast plugin.
The plugin lets you configure advanced features such as tracking outbound clicks, downloads and internal links that redirect to external websites; for example, affiliate links you create using your own domain (yourdomain.com/affiliate/product).
You can also use it to ignore traffic from admins and other users, track search results pages and 404 pages.
Yoast's premium version offers more advanced features, such as tracking views per author, views per post type and other specific dimensions.
#2: Integrate All Analytics Platforms
If you want to combine Google Analytics data with additional analytics tools and platforms to gain insights about your traffic, try Segment. The platform allows you to manage data from over 100 different advertising, analytics, developer, marketing, sales, support and user testing platforms in one place.
Simply install one piece of tracking code on your website, and the rest of the tracking codes from any platforms you choose are managed by Segment.
Segment offers a free plan for using Google Analytics with 20 other specific platforms. Premium plans for more platform integrations start at $29 per month, based on the integrations you need.
#3: Visualize Google Analytics Data
It's possible to view and compare data from multiple websites at the same time in Google Analytics with a tool like Cyfe.
Use Cyfe dashboards to show an overview of all of your websites' pageviews, sessions and users, then analyze the data to identify bigger trends in:
Conversions, traffic sources, bounce rate and location of users
Traffic from search engines and social networks
Real-time traffic, including users, location of users, traffic sources and content they're currently viewing
You can even use it to create dashboards with a detailed view of your websites' real-time traffic, including users, location of users, traffic sources and content they're currently viewing.
With a premium upgrade, you can create unlimited dashboards and widgets from over 50 advertising, analytics, blogging, email, sales, SEO, social media and support platforms for only $19 per month.
#4: Learn About Email Marketing Traffic
Want to link your email marketing efforts to the traffic in Google Analytics? Email marketing platforms such as MailChimp, GetResponse, Constant Contact and Vertical Response allow you to track traffic from links in your emails to your email campaigns.
For example, MailChimp lets you check one box to add UTM parameters to links when you create an email campaign so you can view traffic from those links inside Google Analytics. You can also set up Google Analytics tracking for your automation emails and campaign archive pages.
#5: Link Social and Website Engagement
If you use social media management tools like Buffer, Hootsuite and Oktopost to publish and schedule updates to your top social media networks, you'll benefit from linking them to Google Analytics.
Link Hootsuite and you get an overview report with your Google Analytics data along with the social updates you published through Hootsuite. One custom report is included with the $9.99 per month pro plan.
With Buffer, you can customize the UTM parameters you use to track custom campaigns within Google Analytics so they match the updates you publish through Buffer.

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Wed Mar 09 03:00:33 PST 2016

Do you know where to spend your social media marketing dollars?
Wondering what works for other businesses?
In this article you’ll discover recent insights on the effectiveness of paid social media marketing.
Listen to this article:
#1: Majority of B2C Marketers Find Promoted Social Posts and Ads Effective
In fall 2015, the Content Marketing Institute (with MarketingProfs) surveyed 3,714 marketers from around the world about content and other digital marketing successes. While just 263 identified as B2C marketers and business owners, their insights are still instructive.
As revealed in the chart below (from eMarketer), 76% of B2C respondents use promoted posts (for example, boosted Facebook posts and promoted tweets and pins). Sixty-one percent of these users found promoted posts effective, rating them either 4 or 5 on a 5-point effectiveness scale (3 is neutral).
As for LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and other ads (as opposed to the more editorial-style posts), 59% of respondents rate these 4 or 5 on the 5-point effectiveness scale (74% of those surveyed report using them).
More interesting is the jump in marketers’ perception of effectiveness from Q4 2014 to Q4 2015.
Perceived effectiveness stayed mostly even for offline promotion, online banner ads, and native advertising. Conversely, the number of marketers viewing social ads and promoted posts as effective leapt by 20% and 30% respectively for each tactic. Still, given the small sample size, smart marketers must explore the experience of B2B marketers and others when considering paid social ads.
B2C marketers surveyed by the CMI also put Facebook at the top of the heap in terms of effectiveness, with YouTube coming in second.
Key Takeaway: That only 263 of the CMI’s 3,714 survey respondents identified as B2C suggests that B2C lags behind B2B in adopting the more sophisticated social marketing tactics of promoted posts and social ads. These early adopters find them effective (worth 4 or 5 on the scale) at rates of 64% and 59%.
A satisfaction rate 10% to 15% higher than what B2B companies report (see below) could reflect that the B2C space for these two marketing tactics is not as saturated. B2C is getting better results because with less competition, each campaign draws more eyeballs.
#2: Fewer Than Half of B2B Marketers Find Promoted Social Posts and Ads Effective
The CMI data came from one survey, but it divided the numbers into two reports. With the majority of its respondents in the B2B space (1,521), the Content Marketing Institute had a robust sample from which to draw insights for this vertical.
Of the 93% of B2B marketers and business owners using paid social media, 52% use promoted posts and 51% use sponsored ads. Forty-eight percent of promoted post users and 45% of sponsored ad users rate these tactics 4 or 5 on the 5-point effectiveness scale (again, 3 is neutral).
To compare tactics, B2B marketers pinpoint search engine marketing tactics like PPC or paid search advertising as the most effective paid marketing tactics, with 55% rating them 4 or 5. At the other end of the scale, traditional online banner ads disappoint with only 29% of respondents finding them somewhat or very effective.
Breaking it down further, B2B marketers do have favorite social media platforms.
A darling of the B2B world for years, LinkedIn has become the salesperson’s hunting ground. The platform has always enjoyed a more serious reputation than Facebook with its memes and fun apps that appeal to a diverse audience.
Key Takeaway: When using social media channels, keep in mind that consumers go to Facebook and LinkedIn with different goals and mindsets. Facebook provides a fun and entertaining diversion from work. Marketers and companies that provide lighthearted content there generate goodwill with engagement following from that.
B2B marketers, on the other hand, must recognize that LinkedIn users’ goals have more to ...

We have been working with the online jewelry retailer Mykonospa.com for the last year to increase search engine rankings. We started out by targeting the most highly search Pandora Beads & Charms initially in 2009; providing the highest ROI for the client. Results have been good: In 2010 we are switching our SEO efforts from aggressive manual link development to developing software applications that will influence Aggregators & Distributors of information to build those links for us; Real Social Media Marketing (SMM) While we develop the applications we wanted to continue to improve search engine rankings through content development. Building content for eCommerce Websites can be tricky. When someone comes to a category landing page they want to view the products; not paragraphs of text. So I wanted to share with our readers an easy work around on how to add content to eCommerce landing pages with out ruining the User Experience. Step 1: Modify eCommerce Software so you can add

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Tue Sep 29 03:00:56 PDT 2015

Are you using Instagram to market your business?
Want to direct followers to your website?
With a few simple tactics, you can generate quality website traffic from Instagram.
In this article you'll discover how to use Instagram to drive traffic to your website.
Listen to this article:
#1: Add a Website Link to Your Bio
The most common way to lead Instagram followers to your website is to use the "link in bio" tactic. Instagram lets you include one clickable link in your bio, so make sure you use it effectively. To add a link, go to Edit Profile and type it in the Website text box.
In Birchbox's Instagram bio below, their link directs followers to a customer appreciation day promotion on the company's website.
With the tool Have2Have.it, you can use your bio link to direct followers to a page with the same look and feel as your Instagram feed, where they can click images to purchase your products or read your content.
The New York Times has a Have2Have.it link in their Instagram bio. When followers click the link, they're taken to a curated page with the top stories of the day. Users can click on an image to see the story behind it.
With an analytics dashboard, you can gain key insights to see what content performs best. Focus on high-performing posts to form a content strategy.
By tracking clicks on Instagram, you can increase revenue and subscribers to online content (such as blog posts), newsletters or email campaigns. Of course, you'll want to track your click-through rate, so use a shortened Bitly link or vanity URL to know where your clicks are coming from.
Overall, you can use this tactic for any links including an ecommerce website, YouTube channel or company blog. To take it a step further, create an Instagram landing page that captures email addresses through downloadable content like an ebook. The landing page design should mirror the look of your Instagram feed so there's a visual connection for the user.
#2: Place a Call to Action on Images
Design Instagram photos that convert. You can layer a call to action and your website URL directly onto an aesthetically pleasing photo.
In Canva's post below, the image has a call to action asking followers to enter a contest for a year of free access. The photo caption then directs users to click the link in Canva's bio.
This technique is beneficial for Instagram contests where you ask your followers to enter their email information on your website. Now, you have a strong piece of shareable branded content that drives followers to your contest.
#3: Include a URL in Videos
Instagram video brings digital storytelling to life. In fact, videos on Instagram generate three times more inbound links than image posts, so it's definitely worthwhile to invest in a 15-second narrative.
Brands like Dollar Shave Club use video in innovative ways to spice up their Instagram feed. Their videos work similarly to a television commercial.
Dollar Shave Club's videos include the URL in a text overlay and a voiceover ("Shave with a fresh blade anytime; try Dollar Shave Club.com") that further drives Instagram followers to their website. The videos are quick, fun and engaging, making viewers want to learn more.
#4: Invest in Instagram Ads
Instagram recently announced it was opening its API to all companies and brands. By investing in the platform, you can target the right audience demographic through people's interests. With an ad spend alongside your Instagram strategy, you're likely to see an increase in website visits and ecommerce conversions.
Clickable links in Instagram ads give you an opportunity not only to be creative, but also let your followers learn more about your digital campaigns or attribute direct revenue from Instagram.
There are three types of sponsored Instagram ads: image, video and carousel.
Image ads are single photos that tell a story with their imagery.

by Guy Sheetrit @ Over The Top SEO

Thu Jun 15 09:18:39 PDT 2017

SEO Security What is SEO security? SEO security is the use of SEO metrics to identify flaws in a site’s security, to act to solve those issues, and to monitor site activity with security in mind. Good SEO practitioners follow security news closely and should increase their clients’ site security by a significant factor. They’re […]

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Tue Dec 22 02:00:32 PST 2015

Do you use Twitter for your business?
Looking for ways to connect with local customers?
There are tactics you can use to improve the visibility of your local business and identify potential leads.
In this post you'll discover three ways to connect with local customers on Twitter.
Listen to this article:
#1: Add Location Data to Your Tweets
Enabling location data on your tweets lets Twitter users recognize when they're in close proximity to your business. They may be ready to buy from you at that point, after all, and turning it on will let users click on the location marker icon on your tweet to find out where your business is located. That's one step closer to a sale.
The tweeting with your location feature is disabled by default. To turn it on, compose a tweet and then click on Location Disabled. In the pop-up box that appears, click Turn Location On.
Twitter will then suggest a location. If you want to choose something different, click the location marker, and then choose a location from the menu or enter a location in the search field at the top of the menu.
Your Turn Location On settings are saved, so the next time you compose a tweet, your location information will be added automatically to the tweet.
After you publish your tweet, your location will be displayed when it appears in users' timelines.
#2: Find Leads With a Local Hashtag Search
One way to find local customers on Twitter is to use a tool like Hashtagify to search for people using specific hashtags. Then after you've compiled a list of potential leads, add them to a private Twitter list and start engaging with them.
Here's how to get started.
Search for Hashtags
First, use Hashtagify to find out which Twitter users are using local hashtags, whether they're in your local area or intending to travel to it in the near future.
For example, people tweeting the hashtag #lovedublin may be planning to visit the city, so they would represent potential leads for businesses in Dublin, Ireland.
To search for Twitter users tweeting that hashtag, open Hashtagify and enter your local hashtag in the search field. Click on the gear icon to deselect Instagram from the dialog box so that only Twitter results are returned.
Hashtagify then returns a list of users tweeting that hashtag, which you can view on the right side of the page.
Click on Show More at the bottom of the Top Recent Media list to view a full screen of tweets where the hashtag has been used.
Now go back to your original search results and click Table Mode at the bottom of the screen. This will let you see trending hashtags related to your hashtag.
Look through the table for related hashtags and find relevant ones for your business. Then do a search for those hashtags to find even more prospects and compile a list of leads from the users.
Create a Twitter Lead List
After you've compiled a list of leads, you can then segment your leads from the hashtag search into Twitter lists and start monitoring their conversations.
To add leads to a private Twitter list, go to each user's Twitter profile, click on the gear icon on the right side of the page and select Add or Remove From Lists.
You can then add them to an existing list or create a new one.
If you're creating a new list, add a title for it and a brief description (up to 100 characters). This will help you to distinguish it from other lists on your Twitter profile.
By default, Twitter lists are public, meaning anyone on Twitter can access them. Since this is a client list, select the Private option button so no one will be able to access the list but you. When you're finished, click Save List.
To access your lists, click on the gear icon on your profile and select Lists from the drop-down menu.
Engage With Your Leads
After you've segmented your leads into a Twitter list, start engaging with them to share useful tips,

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Tue Jul 05 03:00:49 PDT 2016

Are your blog posts ranking lower in search than you'd like?
Do you want to rank higher for specific keywords?
In this article, you'll discover tools and tips to help you improve the search ranking of your blog posts.
Listen to this article:
How Ranking for Keywords Has Changed
Optimizing your blog post to rank high in search engines used to be straightforward: pick your keyword and make sure you use it in the title and a few more times in the article. If you picked the right keyword (and if your blog was well-established and referenced), you were most likely to rank somewhere in top 10.
Keyword research has quietly changed over the past few years. First, search engines like Google have become much more sophisticated when it comes to understanding what "high-quality content" is. It's not only about how well your article is optimized: it's also how in-depth, useful, and comprehensive it is. Moreover, as Neil Patel explains, keyword stuffing will get you penalized, not rewarded.
Second, the competition is growing: most bloggers know the basics of search engine optimization these days. It's harder to stand out and get ranked.
Here's how you can get ahead of your competitors.
#1: Include More Keywords
The days when you wrote one blog post per keyword are gone. Google (as well as your audience) now looks for more in-depth long-form content that features a varied vocabulary including synonyms, related phrases, and concepts.
The following tools will help you expand your keyword lists:
Seed Keywords helps you crowdsource your friends and followers into suggesting related keywords for you. The tool creates shareable mini-surveys for your followers to help you brainstorm more ways to search for your topic.
Soovle will generate keyword suggestions from multiple sources (Wikipedia, Amazon, YouTube, Yahoo, Answers.com, and Bing), giving you a good overview of how people search for your keyword on different platforms.
Another tool that does the same (but supports fewer sources) is the Google Keyword Suggest Tool. It generates suggestions from Google, Bing, YouTube, and Amazon and it digs very deep, so you'll get hundreds of phrases to work with.
Reference.com and Synonym.com will help you expand your keyword list with synonyms.
If you're looking to optimize your existing blog posts, use Serpstat to go through your site, pick the most powerful pages, and suggest a list of "missing keywords." Essentially, these are words your competitors are ranking high for, but you're not.
Now all you need to do is go back to your articles and optimize them for those missing keywords to increase your ranking.
An easy way to optimize existing content for new keywords is to add new sections (with subheadings) targeting those new words. This helps content get more comprehensive over time, which naturally results in more social media shares and backlinks.
#2: Refer to Notable People, Places, and Brands
One of the biggest changes in search engine optimization is Google's focus on understanding entities. "Entities" are related notable people, places, organizations, brands, etc., which associate in some way with your keyword.
For the easiest way to demonstrate how entities help in ranking your content, read this awesome case study by Bill Slawski. Bill took a well-optimized piece and rewrote it the following way: first by making it much longer, and second by including notable events and people. The result was astounding. The article started to drive referral traffic from people linking to it, and return visits. And yes, better search rankings too!
Google pays special attention to entities when trying to understand how concise and useful your content is. Google has had years to learn to understand entities, concepts, and their relationships.
Google's Knowledge Graph is an entity graph. Search for any notable name you're aware of to see how Google structures and relates entities.

by Christie Huber @ DialogTech

Mon Sep 11 08:53:56 PDT 2017

The following post is part of the DialogTech “Expert Voices” series where leading marketing experts share insights and best practices and recommend technologies. This post is authored by Pam Moore, CEO and Founder of Marketing Nutz, a training and consulting agency specializing in social media, branding, and digital marketing. Pam is ranked by Forbes as a Top 10 Social Media Power Influencer, […]

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Tue Jun 23 02:00:29 PDT 2015

Do you want to rank higher in search engines?
Interested in ways to use your social accounts to improve your SEO?
Social media has a significant impact on your search results, and a strong social presence can boost your search rankings.
In this article you'll discover five ways to use social media to improve your search rankings.
Listen to this article:
#1: Build Links With Your Social Channels
Google used to put a high value on link building in their search rankings, no matter what quality of links you were building. When people figured this out and started manipulating rankings with fake or low-quality links to their site, Google started to focus on higher-quality links.
Links on social media are often considered higher-quality links, because social sites have a high web authority from the get-go. Even if your Facebook page is new, it's likely to rank highly (and maybe even surpass your website) thanks to Facebook's overall high authority.
It may sound obvious, but make sure that you include a working link to your website not only in your content, but also in every social profile you have. In addition to increasing traffic to your site, it's also highly valuable for link building.
When it comes to link building within content, post content like new products or blog posts to your social profiles to encourage sharing. For example, you could create a relevant YouTube video for each blog post and embed it in the post, capitalizing on the high web authority to send traffic to your site and increase search rankings.
#2: Grow Your Follower Base
Pages with a lot of high-quality followers rank better in searches. High-quality followers are real followers on your social channels, and a large percentage of them engage or interact with you in some form.
This interaction might be repinning pins, retweeting your content or sending you a tweet, placing reviews on Google+ or engaging with your posts on Facebook.
Social signals are a very real factor when it comes to SEO. Search engines look at social signals to find out how often you're posting to your social media accounts, how many people interact with you and if there are social-sharing elements available to visitors to your site.
There's no point in trying to outsmart the algorithms with fake likes on Facebook. Low-quality followers are not good for you. Not only will Facebook penalize you for fake likes, search engines like Google will punish you with lower rankings, too.
So, make sure you're steadily gaining a solid base of followers that are interacting with you and your content, and encourage them to share, engage and interact with you.
#3: Make Your Content Searchable and Sharable
Pinterest is a great example of a social platform that makes your content both searchable and sharable. Pinterest encourages sharing to a great extent. Users post pins they like to their boards, and share them with other Pinterest users.
Many social accounts give you the option of keeping your content private, or relatively so. On YouTube, you can have unlisted videos, and only people who have links to the videos can watch them. Pinterest allows secret boards, and Twitter gives you the option to have a private profile.
When it comes to your business, you want all of your social accounts to be public, and you want all of your content to be searchable.
For example, for your Facebook profile, you have the option to make your posts searchable in search engines. To do this, go to your Facebook privacy settings and enable the option Do You Want Other Search Engines to Link to Your Timeline?, shown here.
The more people who see your posts, the more people who might share it. Encouraging sharing (including through methods like Facebook contests) is a great way to increase your search rankings.
#4: Use Keywords in Your Posts
Keywords are important for your website, blog and paid ad campaigns,

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Tue Aug 11 02:00:55 PDT 2015

Want to grow your followers without advertising?
Is Twitter working for you?
Investing in organic growth on Twitter takes time, consistency and commitment. But the rewards are more credibility and social proof.
In this article you'll find simple steps to organically grow your Twitter followers.
Listen to this article:
#1: Use IFTTT to Curate Twitter Lists Automatically
When you add people to a Twitter list, it signals to them that their tweets are valuable enough to be put in a specific category. People on your lists are likely to reciprocate by following your account.
While adding users to a Twitter list manually takes time, it's getting easier to automate the process thanks to new technology.
Go to the IFTTT website and create an account or login, then connect your Twitter account.
Next, create a recipe that tells your Twitter account that when a new tweet is posted with a hashtag you determine, it should add that user to a new list you create. That's it.
Now, whenever people tweet with the hashtag in your recipe, they will be automatically added to your list.
Some people will follow you immediately. Send out a tweet to thank them. Connect with the others on your list with a tweet, saying that you added them to your list because you find their content valuable.
One more thing: when you're using the automatic method, make sure you follow all of the people you add to your lists.
#2: Stay On-Topic and On-Trend
Twitter users want to view content they're interested in, not the stuff you think is interesting. Do some research to find which topics related to your field are also popular on Twitter.
To find out what's trending, sign into Twitter on your desktop. You'll see the trending hashtags and topics appear on the left-hand side of your page.
If appropriate, find ways to contribute to the conversation by tweeting with a trending hashtag. For example, find ways your product or service relates to a holiday.
Now, I'm not saying you should tweet out your latest blog post and include a trending hashtag that is completely unrelated just to get more views. This is a pretty spammy approach.
The goal is not to abandon your brand and jump on whatever shines brightest. It's to take advantage of any widespread trends, news and happenings that are related to your business. Ideally, find something subtle, funny and relatable. When the conversation changes, go with the flow.
Jump on the right trends and you'll increase the visibility of your tweets and ultimately gain followers.
#3: Respond to Tweets From Large Accounts
It's also good practice to reply to tweets posted by accounts with hundreds of thousands or millions of followers.
Responding to a giant in your industry is a prime opportunity to engage with bigger crowds. Once you respond, your tweet is attached to their tweet and everyone else can see it.
#4: Thank People Who Engage With You
This should be the golden rule of Twitter: Engage with people when they engage with you.
When people add you to a Twitter list, thank them. When users favorite a tweet you're mentioned in, thank them. When people follow you, thank them. When people retweet you, thank them.
This goes beyond gratitude. Thank and engage with people every single time they engage with you, whether they ask a question, offer a suggestion, mention you at an event, etc.
Not only will this help you keep new followers, it also prompts them to share your stuff even more with their network, thereby increasing your visibility.
People like people who notice them and respond to them. Getting in this habit is a surefire way to organically build an engaged Twitter community.
#5: Tweet Those You Quote
Whether you write a blog post that includes a Twitter user or use a tool like Storify to compile a bunch of tweets, remember to @mention those you include.
People like to see their names published.

by Alok Singh @ Bloghashtag

Many sites are suffering a big demotion in Google ranking due to backlinks. The quality of backlinks shows significant effect on the SEO performance of websites. Quality backlinks can be built by using SEO techniques, ranking of the search engine can be enhanced and improved. The Google Disavow Tool is one of the most awaited …

by Sales @ Kosmos Central

Mon Apr 27 14:05:31 PDT 2015

On April-21st-2015 Google announced their mobile-friendly update to the Google search algorithm. Google is now giving mobile-friendly websites higher rankings in the search results. The mobile-friendly update is focused on improving mobile ease-of-use on the web, so that highly ranked web pages are readable without zooming, tapping, or horizontal scrolling. “Today’s the day we begin […]

“Do I need a mobile friendly website?” Have you asked yourself this question recently? Smartphones and other mobile devices are fast becoming the preferred method of Internet access; if you haven’t already got a mobile website, you need to get one soon. Why? Because your customers are increasingly going mobile. Mobile Online Shopping Time Now […]

by @ Social Media Marketing Podcast helps your business thrive with social media

Fri Feb 17 03:00:28 PST 2017

Do you use Facebook ads?
Have you considered creating Facebook ads from your top-performing organic posts?
To explore how to identify and boost your best Facebook content, I interview Larry Kim.
More About This Show
The Social Media Marketing podcast is an on-demand talk radio show from Social Media Examiner. It's designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.
In this episode, I interview Larry Kim, the founder and chief technology officer for WordStream. He's a frequent blogger, pay-per-click expert, and social advertising ninja.
Larry explains how to improve the performance of your best content with Facebook advertising.
You'll discover how to budget for Facebook ads.
Share your feedback, read the show notes, and get the links mentioned in this episode below.
Listen Now
You can also subscribe via iTunes, RSS, or Stitcher.
Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show:
How to Use Facebook Ads to Boost Your Best Content
Larry's Backstory
Larry's company, WordStream, does search engine and social media advertising, and Larry believes that it's important for businesses to do both types.
For instance, B2B software companies build new features, functions, and solutions that nobody is searching for yet. However, with social ads, these businesses can target people who are likely to buy their software based on demographics, interests, or behaviors.
Unlike an individual advertiser who has data about only one business, Larry is able to spot trends and patterns in online advertising because WordStream manages approximately $1 billion of ad spending across Facebook, Bing, and Google and runs thousands of campaigns for different clients. WordStream analyzes all of these campaigns to figure out data such as the typical cost per click and typical engagement rates.
Listen to the show to discover the percentage of WordStream's clients using Facebook advertising.
How Algorithms Work
To understand the algorithms, Larry says it's important to think about the context in which your ad appears. (Our conversation focuses on Facebook, but Larry says the same is true for ads on Twitter and other social media platforms.) When you sponsor or promote a post, you're one of thousands or even millions of companies going after the same audience. Larry explains that the Facebook algorithm is designed to handle that volume in a way that keeps Facebook engaging for users so they come back.
To determine which posts to show users and how much to charge the advertiser, Larry believes that the algorithm looks at many different factors, but the main one is engagement (clicks, likes, comments, or shares). A post with low engagement has an engagement rate of 1% to 2%. (Only 1 or 2 people out of 100 engage with the post.) A high-engagement post has a rate of 10% to 15%, and the average is around 2.5% to 3%.
Larry emphasizes that Facebook doesn't want users' news feeds filled with ridiculous updates that no one cares about. A company trying to promote garbage content with low engagement rates will be dinged with very few ad impressions. The ad might not even be shown. If the ad does show, the click-through rate will be expensive (a few dollars per click versus a few cents).
The reverse is also true. Facebook rewards companies that promote interesting content by showing their ads and charging only pennies per click.
Listen to the show to hear Larry's thoughts about how engaging ad content needs to be compared to organic content.
Unicorns
Because algorithms reward engaging content, Larry believes that the winning advertising strategy is simple: promote your unicorns. These outlier posts do spectacularly well. They get three to five times more traffic than the average post and are among the top 1% to 3% of your most engaging content.
For instance, a unicorn post might have a 20% engagement rate,

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Mon Jul 20 03:00:04 PDT 2015

Do you want more people to see your social media posts?
Have you thought about investing in social media advertising?
With targeted ad campaigns, you can ensure that your posts reach the audience you define.
In this article, I explore the top social networks that offer promoted post options and how they help you reach your audience.
Listen to this article:
#1: Boost Posts on Facebook
To combat low organic reach on Facebook, you can boost your Facebook page posts in a variety of ways.
You can boost your posts as you create them.
You can use the Boost Post button after a post is published to your Facebook page. This is especially helpful if you're using social sharing tools to post to your page.
You can also boost posts from inside your page's Facebook Insights. This is particularly useful if you're browsing through your analytics and notice a particular post could use a boost or could go viral based on its current organic reach.
When you click the Boost Post button, a lightbox pops up that gives you simple audience targeting, scheduling and budgeting options.
If you want the quick and easy approach, use this interface. For more detailed options, visit the Facebook Ads Manager, create a new ad and choose the Boost Your Posts ad objective.
This approach gives you the full Facebook Ads interface for advanced audience targeting, scheduling and budgeting, allowing you to get the most out of your ad budget and post promotion.
Alternatively, go to your Audience Manager and create custom audiences and saved audiences.
You can create custom audiences with email or phone lists of your customers and subscribers. A saved audience is created when you save an audience based on specific configurations.
When creating audiences, use the Boost Post buttons on your page and Facebook Insights to target specific audiences faster.
Using specific audience targeting ensures that your Facebook page posts will reach the right audience to drive qualified traffic and engagement to your business.
#2: Promote Tweets on Twitter
If you think Facebook is the only social network suffering from low organic reach, think again. One of the more popular tweets from Whole Foods, a company with over 4 million followers, resulted in only 233 favorites, 96 retweets and 5 replies. That's pretty low reach, which is why promoting your tweets on Twitter is a good idea.
You can start a promoted tweet campaign from a few places. First, you can click on the tweet Analytics icon beneath any of your tweets.
This reveals your tweet's activity, as well as a Promote Your Tweet button.
Second, you can click on the Tweet Details link in your Twitter Analytics to get the option to promote your tweet.
Unfortunately, the Promote Your Tweet button doesn't offer much in the way of targeting or other options.
This is why you'll want to use the Twitter Ads interface to promote your tweet instead.
Here, you can post a new tweet to promote or choose from tweets you've already posted to your profile.
Then you'll find all of the targeting, budgeting and scheduling options you want for your promoted tweet campaign.
Again, using specific audience targeting will ensure that your tweets reach the right audience to drive qualified traffic and engagement to your business.
#3: Sponsor Updates on LinkedIn
The most recent update on Microsoft's LinkedIn company page has 1,376 likes and 111 comments, which is pretty good since they have over 2 million followers. Past updates have netted fewer than 500 likes and 100 comments each, making LinkedIn yet another network where organic reach is low.
Fortunately, you can sponsor updates you've posted to your LinkedIn company page. You can do it from your page with the Sponsor Update button.
You can also do it using the Sponsor link from your LinkedIn company page analytics.

by @ Social Media Marketing Podcast helps your business thrive with social media

Fri Apr 12 03:00:49 PDT 2013

Do you use SlideShare?
Are you looking for more leads?
To learn how SlideShare can help marketers, I interview Todd Wheatland for this episode of the Social Media Marketing podcast.
More About This Show
The Social Media Marketing podcast is a show from Social Media Examiner.
It's designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.
The show format is on-demand talk radio (also known as podcasting).
In this episode, I interview Todd Wheatland, author of The Marketer's Guide to SlideShare. He's also head of Thought Leadership at Kelly Services.
Todd shares his insights into how SlideShare can be used to generate more exposure and leads for your business.
You'll learn the tactics to use and the mistakes to avoid to ensure you get the most out of this platform.
Share your feedback, read the show notes and get the links mentioned in this episode below!
Listen Now
You can also subscribe via iTunes, RSS, or Stitcher.
Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show:
SlideShare for Business
Why marketers should take a closer look at SlideShare
Todd believes there are three reasons why marketers should take a closer look at SlideShare.
1. Pure traffic. SlideShare is one of the highest-traffic sites on the Internet, receiving over 60 million unique visitors every month. It gives sheer exposure to your potential audience and SlideShare credibility for search engines.
You'll discover amazing things that can happen when you use the same content from your website on SlideShare. The inter-play between content and distribution in one place is very unique in terms of what SlideShare delivers.
2. Business audience. It's a platform that's about business. You'll find out the six words that are the most used tags on content in SlideShare.
3. Leads. The lead-capturing model that SlideShare has been using for the last couple of years is a very simple tool. It's easy for the visitor. You'll hear about how flexible the lead form is for the marketer and the control it gives when you ask for lead generation.
A quick overview of SlideShare
Todd explains how SlideShare began as a place for people to upload the PowerPoints they were presenting at a conference or an event. Since then, it has evolved into a content marketing platform for any form of digital content.
With SlideShare, you can take any sort of presentation and insert videos and record an audio track and lay it over the top. You can then even use it as an audiovisual presentation. It's a platform for you to share any type of digital content including Word documents, infographics, webcasts and HD video. It has moved far beyond the original premise.
If you're a blogger with great content on your blog and you choose to house it on SlideShare, you could decide to use your content on SlideShare specifically to capture leads. There are certain ways to handle lead capture on SlideShare versus your own site.
Todd states that if you have content that has a complex design, when you host that document on SlideShare, it enables you to embed it very neatly. You'll learn why you should think of it as an enhanced YouTube embed, rather than seeing it as something competing with your website. It supports and drives traffic to your own platform.
Listen to the show to find out why the average use on SlideShare is probably far less sophisticated than what the average marketer or professional is using and trying to achieve out of it.
How Kelly Services uses SlideShare
Todd shares how Kelly Services started to get deep on SlideShare about 2-3 years ago.
At present, they have an off-brand on SlideShare called The Talent Project. It's where all their major content items including research reports, ebooks, infographics and videos are stored.
You'll hear why they have a platinum network account and how it works for them. The "network" part means that their most prolific con...

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Mon Jun 20 02:00:53 PDT 2016

Do you want more people to join your LinkedIn group?
Are you looking for tips to get more exposure for your group?
LinkedIn groups are a great way to generate leads and increase influence within an engaged community.
In this article, you'll discover five ways to quickly build a larger membership for your LinkedIn group.
Listen to this article:
#1: Optimize Your Group Description
One way to attract more members to join your LinkedIn group is to optimize your group description. This is the description that appears on every group page.
In your description, lead with the ultimate reason why people should join your group. This is the first piece of information they see, so it makes sense to highlight your value proposition in this section. Make sure you also spell out the purpose and benefits of joining your group.
You'll want to include industry keywords to make it easier for people to find your group when they're searching for groups to join. Identify four to five keywords that are most relevant to your group and use these keywords to optimize your description.
Don't forget to mention that self-promotional material is not allowed; otherwise, your group will receive a lot of spammy posts from members who are only there to promote their products or services. You're looking for members who can provide actual value to your LinkedIn group.
LinkedIn has a built-in feature that flags posts that are potentially self-promotional or spammy, so even if people do attempt this you can still moderate their posts.
#2: Invite Your LinkedIn Connections
Because LinkedIn groups are now private, you'll need to manually invite your LinkedIn connections to join. To do this, go to your group's main page and click the Invite Others button.
A search box appears where you can type in the name of individual connections who meet your group's criteria. Avoid inviting people who aren't likely to be interested in joining. You can usually tell whether they're suitable by viewing their profile and job title.
You can select multiple connections to invite. If you plan to invite as many as possible, start with the letter A, and work your way down to Z. This is the only way to invite a large number of connections.
It's important to note that inviting connections does vary by group type. For example, in standard groups, anyone can invite connections to join, but only group managers and owners can pre-approve members and invite them by email address.
With unlisted groups, only owners and managers can invite members. Plus, an invitation is required to join unlisted groups.
#3: Ask Colleagues and Peers to Promote Your Group
Do you know someone with a massive database in your target market? How about someone who runs a digital publication in your niche? Consider asking relevant people to promote your group to their members, and offer an incentive in return. This is how mutually beneficial relationships work, and it could result in many new members for your LinkedIn group.
You want to sound as human as possible when doing this type of outreach. Avoid using automation platforms, because most people can tell when you're using one. One-to-one email works best.
When you compose your outreach email, start by suggesting you have a new channel that their audience could receive tremendous value from. Use bullet points when identifying this information to make it easier for the recipient to read.
If you don't have many industry contacts, consider spending more time working on your personal brand.
#4: Send a Newsletter to Your Email Database
The importance of growing an engaged email database is well documented. In fact, according to the 2016 B2B Marketing Outlook Report, 60% of marketers are set to conduct more email marketing campaigns in 2016, highlighting its importance.
As when doing influencer outreach to your target market, you should create one-on-one emails that are short and to the point an...

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Tue Apr 12 02:00:50 PDT 2016

Want to improve your search ranking?
Wondering how your social activities can support your SEO?
In this article you'll discover three ways social media can improve your visibility in search results.
Listen to this article:
#1: Dominate Your SERP
You probably see SERPs every day without giving them a second thought. Simply put, SERP stands for "search engine results page." Every time you search for a keyword or phrase, the search engine displays a SERP.
If you claim your business name on the top social media profiles, it's more likely that you'll "own" the first page of results when people search for you. For example, the SERP from a search for the name "KlientBoost" shows the company's website followed immediately by their profiles on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and YouTube. KlientBoost owns the search engine results page for their business.
To start owning the SERP for your business or brand name, use a service like KnowEm to check for the availability of your business name across popular social media platforms. This makes it easy to reserve your name on as many platforms as possible in a short amount of time.
As you claim your social media profiles, you'll need to populate those profiles with your business information, branded images, and links back to your blog or website. While it's true that the links in most social media profiles are "no-follow" (meaning they don't actually pass on authority to your website), these links can help you build trust and credibility in your website's backlink profile with search engines, so make sure to include them.
#2: Stand Out Visually With YouTube Video
Because most search results are full of text, results that include a video stand out on the page. This means they're likely to gain more clicks even if they place lower on the page. To take advantage of this, create high-quality YouTube videos that answer questions your customers and prospects are likely to ask.
Lawn care company LawnStarter posts videos on their YouTube channel that answer common questions people have about maintaining their lawns. The videos are entertaining and stand out in the search results like the one below for the search "how to mow wet grass."
#3: Reach Influencers to Support Quality Backlinks
When it comes to getting your website or blog to show up in search results for non-branded terms (such as a service you provide), the most influential metric to track is external links to your site. Backlinko analyzed 1 million search results and found that there's a significant correlation between organic search ranking and the number of quality external backlinks.
By leveraging social media, you can extend the reach of your content to a larger audience, which will also likely increase the number of clicks and shares it receives. In basic terms, More Shares = More Backlinks = Higher Search Placement.
Keep these points in mind to get more visibility and shares for your content:
Long-form content gets more shares than short-form content.
Having at least one image leads to a dramatic increase in social shares.
Lists and infographics get more social shares.
To take this one step further, you can pay to promote your content to influencers to generate quality backlinks. Whether you want backlinks from journalists, industry publications, or other influencers, paid campaigns on Twitter will help you get your content in front of them.
Why Twitter? A lot of journalists and influencers use it to find trending stories to cover. Putting your best content in front of these people increases the likelihood that they'll use your content in a story. Depending on your business, you can also apply this tactic to Facebook and LinkedIn.
Use a tool like BuzzSumo to identify the people who are best positioned to give your content a quality backlink by sharing it or covering it in a story. To get started, log into BuzzSumo and click on Twitter Influencers.

by Arun Kumar Sharma @ Bloghashtag

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) modifies the website for the better reflection of the search engines for which a client is looking for. Professionals offer a traffic free environment for the users and it provides the facility to them to enjoy an unforgettable gourmet experience with the impressive network services. These days, most businessmen are understanding …

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Mon Aug 24 02:00:34 PDT 2015

Do you use images in your Facebook marketing?
Are your image posts performing as well as you’d like?
While targeting, relevancy and timing play significant roles in the success of Facebook campaigns, the right image is key to improving engagement.
In this article, you’ll discover how to improve the performance of your Facebook image posts.
Listen to this article:
#1: Start With Quality Images
People respond to outstanding images. These are pictures that inspire likes, comments and shares, and encourage people to engage. The importance of images (as well as video) has skyrocketed in recent years, so images that were good enough in the past may not be anymore.
While most brands think they share captivating images, unfortunately most are missing the mark. You not only need to use pictures that are high-quality and unique, you need to make sure those pictures relate to your brand and stimulate engagement.
For example, even though TripAdvisor has access to some of the most captivating imagery in the world, some of their images work better than others.
After reviewing their 20 most recent posts on Facebook, I discovered that TripAdvisor receives an average 251 likes and 30 shares per post.
Many of those posts display user-generated content like this beautiful landscape above with the text, "Caption this …"
An image like this used to be "enough" for fans to get excited about and engage with. (And 376 likes would make many fan pages stand up and cheer.) However, the text is very basic and it's just one view of a setting.
Alternatively, but still in line with their brand, TripAdvisor recently posted 12 beautiful images of natural pools in an album with a clever title ("Natural Swimming Pools You Wish Were in Your Backyard") and a caption ("We like our pools au naturel."), designed for a reaction. The result? Nearly 2,700 likes and almost 300 shares.
In this case quantity and quality paid off. There's no question about it. It's harder to compose Facebook posts like this. However, if you want to increase engagement on your images in a big way, it may be worth the time to put in the extra work.
#2: Test for Performance
To find what will inspire your audience to engage, you need an image that makes them stop in their tracks, followed by irresistible content. Trial and error with split testing is a surefire way to determine what your fans do and do not respond to. It just takes time.
Study your image performance to see which ones fall flat, and which images trigger a response, whether it's in the form of a like, share, click, sign-up, purchase, etc. When you find what works, replicate and scale it.
You should also review images that don't lead to a response, so you can try to understand why they weren't successful.
Keep in mind that the image itself is not the only thing that makes a post successful. Pay attention to the title, body content, call to action and any additional text (such as percentage off in an ad or expiration date for a deal) as well.
After testing images to see what resonates with your audience, gather images that are in alignment with your brand. Then, write out your messaging in the form of titles, text and calls to action. Don't go with just the first few things that come to mind. Get creative and take the time to do this right.
Now, mix and match to create a massive library of image and text combinations. Some of the combinations should be completely different and others just slightly different. The goal is to make sure that every post people see for your brand is different than the one before.
#3: Pay for Visibility
Facebook has changed quite a bit in recent years. Organic reach is not what it used to be. So unless you already have thousands of highly engaged fans, the odds of an organic photo post performing well are slim. The answer? Facebook advertising.
If you're going to put in the time to develop amazing photo posts,

by @ Social Media Marketing Podcast helps your business thrive with social media

Fri May 06 03:00:48 PDT 2016

Do you use visuals in your social media?
Want tools and tips to help you create images?
To discover how to create great social media visuals when you're not a designer, I interview Donna Moritz.
More About This Show
The Social Media Marketing podcast is an on-demand talk radio show from Social Media Examiner. It's designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.
In this episode I interview Donna Moritz. Donna is a visual marketing expert, and her blog Socially Sorted was recognized as one of Social Media Examiner's Top 10 Social Media Blogs in 2015 and 2016.
Donna will share why social media marketers should care about visuals.
You'll discover what to consider before you design images for social media and learn about new tools to help you.
Share your feedback, read the show notes and get the links mentioned in this episode below.
Listen Now
You can also subscribe via iTunes, RSS, or Stitcher.
Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show:
Social Media Visuals
Why care about visuals?
Because the news feed is so busy these days, Donna explains, marketers need to do everything they can to capture attention. She says visuals catch that attention and typically drive users to take some sort of action because visuals support an emotional connection.
Donna points out that the fastest-growing channels such as Periscope and Snapchat are highly focused on visual content, as are Instagram and Pinterest. She also notes that traditional platforms Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter are giving more attention to visual content and users are 44% more likely to engage with content that contains pictures.
Video is also on the rise, Donna adds. Socialbakers research shows that brands are now uploading more video directly to Facebook than YouTube, and about 80% of all video engagement is coming from Facebook native video. And that's before Facebook Live is really being measured. Plus, she says, 110 years of video footage is watched on Periscope every day.
According to the Content Marketing Institute, out of a range of priorities for content creators, visual content is in the top three.
Visual content is a very important topic because it works. Marketers just need to find out where to start and how to produce and use images efficiently.
Listen to the show to discover the current standard image format and how image sizes have changed.
Getting started with images
Before you start to design images, Donna says you need to think about what types of visual content get shared well on which platforms. Content that's effective on Facebook might be different from what works on Instagram, which might be different from Twitter.
She's seen people get overwhelmed trying to do visual content on every platform, and advises that it's better to focus on visuals for one particular platform at a time. She also cautions that you shouldn't jump into visuals on a new platform until you have systems in place for visuals on the one before it.
Donna shares her Visual Content Blueprint, which is five elements to help you create images that work.
First, decide what the image is going to be in regards to what works on the targeted platform (more on this later). Then consider the call to action. It could be asking for more connection or engagement (likes or comments), driving more shares or click-throughs, or a combination.
Next, think about your landing content (where people arrive when they click through or share). Will people get more information, blog content, a free download, or something else of value?
After that, make sure users are achieving some sort of goal. Do you want them to sign up for something, read a blog post, or stay on your website?
Donna recommends that every image be able to stand alone. That way, if something is pinned or shared out of context, people will still understand what you're offering and how to get it.

by @ Social Media Marketing Podcast helps your business thrive with social media

Fri Aug 31 05:00:42 PDT 2012

Are you trying to build an engaged loyal following that loves you and your business?
Have you tried to use video, podcasting or social media to build engagement?
I explore these questions with Pat Flynn for our new Social Media Marketing podcast.
More About This New Show
The Social Media Marketing podcast is a brand-new show from Social Media Examiner.
It's designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.
In this episode, I interview Pat Flynn, founder of Smart Passive Income.
Pat shares insights into his tactics and strategies and how social media content contributes to the success of his business.
You'll learn how to create content to publish on different social media platforms to connect to a large audience. And you'll discover the techniques to use to build a loyal fan base.
Share your feedback, read the show notes and get the links mentioned in this episode below!
Listen Now
You can also subscribe via iTunes, RSS, or Stitcher.
Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show:
Social Media Content for Business
The business strategy behind Smart Passive Income
Pat explains how content plays a key role in his business. You'll learn why his focus is to provide valuable content for those looking for information. You'll hear how you can do this when you share content based on your own experiences.
Pat shares the results his business has had from his different content platforms: blog, video and podcast.
Listen to the show to discover Pat's personal stories behind his successful business.
How to make a personal connection with your audience
Pat talks about the different ways he shares personal information about himself to connect with his audience and how he incorporates this into his business content.
Pat shares the reason why he gives his audience strategic insights into his personal story.
Pat shares how he connects with his audience on Facebook. You'll find out the strategy behind the different components of Pat's Facebook page photo and how this strategy helps him connect with his audience.
People like to connect with people. You'll pick up some useful tips on how to build affinity online.
Listen to the show to discover why Pat leverages his "trifecta" content creation strategy (blogging, video and podcasting) to connect with a wide audience.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJIJ_6G9Z84
Pat's video strategy
YouTube is the #2 search engine in the world. Pat explains how he uses videos to respond to questions from his audience.
Pat explains how this strategy works well for his business and drives traffic back to his website.
Listen to the show to find out how Pat intentionally uses keywords in his videos for great results.
Pat's blogging strategy
Pat blogs three times a week. He publishes content based on his own experiences and explains what he does wrong, what he does right and the results he gets. He's very transparent with all of the different processes.
Pat talks about the Niche Site Duel, where he was challenged to build a website from scratch. Pat publicly displayed the process and how it reached #1 in Google.
Pat explains the role email marketing plays in his business model and why it's crucial for business. You'll discover why email is still the best tool to use to connect with people in a direct and personal way.
Listen to the show to discover insights into the business strategies behind Pat's successful blog.
Pat's podcasting strategy
You'll discover how Pat was surprised by the extent that podcasting helps his brand. Learn how Pat discovered that 20% of his readers find his website through his podcasts.
Find out how to train your podcast audience to get to your blog with calls to action in your podcast. Pat uses the Pretty Link Pro plugin and domain names for easy redirect URLs to get podcast listeners to come to his site.

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Tue Jun 07 02:00:57 PDT 2016

Are you struggling to build a pipeline of quality leads?
Wondering how LinkedIn can help?
With the right forms of targeting, pitching, and engagement, you can use your LinkedIn profile to secure warm leads for your business.
In this article, you'll discover how to create an effective lead generation process with your LinkedIn profile.
Listen to this article:
#1: Use LinkedIn Search to Identify Prospects
While getting more likes and followers for your company page is important, it doesn't necessarily generate leads.
For lead generation, you need to connect with the right audience. Start by narrowing down the job roles you want to target; focus on the people who are most likely to understand the technical benefits of your product and have the authority to make a buying decision. You should consider talking to CMOs, CEOs, CTOs, COOs, or other heads of departments your product or service fits into.
For example, if your product is a social listening tool that helps companies with brand mentions, crisis prevention, and other monitoring opportunities on the web, you would search for and connect with heads of marketing or digital marketing.
After you connect with relevant people, pitch them with a soft sell. Introduce yourself and your company in a soft tone. Instead of trying to tell your new connection how amazing your company is with 500 words, ask to schedule a 10-minute call. It's also important to follow up on your pitch if you don't hear back. Follow up after a week and again after two weeks.
Use Google Sheets and a good CRM to maintain the flow of leads and track each lead's stage in terms of conversion.
#2: Connect With Website Visitors on LinkedIn
When you add the following code to your website, you can see everyone who visits your website in the Who's Viewed Your Profile section on LinkedIn:
These people are validated warm leads because they've shown some level of interest in your company.
As you find people who fit your ideal lead, you can follow up with them via a LinkedIn InMail or an email from your personal business account. For example, your message could read something like this:
Hi NAME,
Hope you are doing well.
My name is NAME and I am the DESIGNATION at COMPANY NAME.
I just took a deeper look at your website and understand that your company might be looking for PRODUCT FEATURES OR SERVICE.
At YOUR COMPANY NAME, we are SHORT DESCRIPTION OF YOUR PRODUCT FEATURES OR SERVICE.
FEATURE 1/SERVICE OF YOUR COMPANY
FEATURE 2/SERVICE OF YOUR COMPANY
The companies that have been working with us for a long time include CLIENT 1 and CLIENT 2.
I was wondering if we could schedule a call sometime this week to discuss this further?
Regards,
YOUR NAME
DESIGNATION
PHONE
COMPANY NAME
#3: Make Your LinkedIn Profile a Resource
If you follow the lead generation process thoroughly, you'll form a significant number of connections over a short period of time. You'll need to engage your growing audience by sharing educational material that can help them.
For example, if your product is solving problems in the hospitality industry and your leads are upper management of hotels, it's best to share content from your profile that talks about that topic. You should also consider publishing similar content on Pulse.
The point here is to share valuable content that will help you build credibility with your target leads.
To streamline this process, you can use tools like Hootsuite or Buffer to schedule content from your LinkedIn profile.
#4: Share Advice in LinkedIn Groups
One of the best ways to gain credibility, and by extension the notice of prospects, is to share your knowledge and insight with the very people you want to work with. LinkedIn groups offer a way for you to find these people and warm them up.
If, for example, your company sells products or services related to the human resources industry,

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Thu Jan 28 03:00:56 PST 2016

Do you have a local business page on Facebook?
Want to reach more local customers?
Facebook recently launched Professional Services, a directory that helps consumers find the best local businesses and services to fit their needs.
In this article I'll share how to use the Facebook Professional Services feature to boost visibility with local customers.
Listen to this article:
What Is Facebook Professional Services?
Facebook Professional Services is a directory inside Facebook for local businesses. The goal is to help customers find local businesses with the best Facebook reviews and ratings.
Facebook expert Mari Smith doesn't see it as making "... a huge dent in Yelp... at first." But, she continues, "Over time, as more and more businesses become savvy with their Facebook marketing, and really promote their page activity, the Services Directory and Places could be more of a first choice for consumers."
Customers can use the search box to find businesses in the area based on keywords specific to the products or services they need. They can also browse the top local business categories.
Within search results or specific category selections, customers see basic details about local businesses, such as their description, address, phone number and ratings.
One of the nice parts about Facebook Professional Services is that it's not limited to the United States. People can search for local businesses worldwide.
While there are no specific guidelines as to how the Facebook algorithm determines which local businesses to show, after several searches, you can determine it's based on the following:
Where the local business is located
Matching keywords in the local business page's name, description and category
The overall average star rating of the local business
The number of ratings the local business has received
The recency of the latest review
The number of check-ins for the local business
Previous interactions between the local business page and the customer
Connections between customers and people who check in, rate and review the local business
Mobile users can access Facebook Professional Services from their device's browser.
The search works the same, but the categories presented are much more limited.
Inside the Facebook app, Nearby Places is the best alternative. iPhone users will find this under the More menu.
There, they can search for businesses based on location and category.
Search results and category pages will show similar information as presented in Facebook Professional Services on the desktop.
Based on Facebook's tendency to create individual apps for different features, one could assume that if Facebook Professional Services takes off, it will become a stand-alone app similar to what Yelp offers. But Facebook Professional Services is still in its earliest stages, so only time will tell.
Now that you know what Facebook Professional Services is and a little bit about how it works, here are some tips to help you boost your local business's visibility in the new local directory.
#1: Choose the Correct Category and Subcategories for Your Local Business Page
To ensure that customers find your local business in search or a category listing page, be sure that you've selected the appropriate category and subcategories for your local business. To start, search for the keywords or categories that customers would use to find you and see what Facebook suggests.
Then go to your local business Facebook page and enter them in Page Info on the About tab.
#2: Enter Your Business Details
All of these fields (found in Page Info on the About tab of your local business Facebook page) appear in search results on Facebook Professional Services.
Hence, you'll want to be sure the short description, contact info and business hours fields are filled in on your local business Facebook page.

by @ Social Media Marketing Podcast helps your business thrive with social media

Fri Aug 04 03:00:48 PDT 2017

Are you planning to start a live video show?
Want to know which tools you'll need to broadcast live?
To explore the best live video apps and software to produce your own live show, I interview Ian Anderson Gray.
More About This Show
The Social Media Marketing podcast is an on-demand talk radio show from Social Media Examiner. It's designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.
In this episode, I interview Ian Anderson Gray, the founder of Seriously Social, a blog focused on social media tools. Ian is also a live video tools expert. His courses include Seriously Social OBS Studio and Seriously Social Wirecast.
Ian explores the best live video software for beginning and advanced broadcasters.
You'll discover which software and add-ons offer the features you need.
Share your feedback, read the show notes, and get the links mentioned in this episode below.
Listen Now
Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show:
Live Video Tools
Ian's Live Video Story
When Facebook Live started rolling out, Ian felt like everyone had access before he did, because he was an Android user (at the time) living in the United Kingdom.
In his search for a workaround, Ian discovered OBS Studio, a free tool for Macs and PCs. With OBS Studio, Ian found a way to broadcast from his computer to his Facebook page, profile, and groups. That was his entry into Facebook Live and live video.
Ian wrote a blog post on how to broadcast from your computer with OBS Studio and went out of his way to make the process as easy as possible for people to understand. He even included a tool that allows people to get the magic stream key necessary to broadcast with OBS Studio.
Since Ian posted the article last year, the article has had just under three million views.
Listen to the show to discover what platform Ian tried using before Facebook Live.
What Stops Marketers From Going Live?
Two things stop marketers from going live: "the fear and the gear." But Ian believes fear is what really gets in people's way.
People are afraid they'll say something silly or wrong. They might be worried their cat will jump on the keyboard, the webcam will fall over, and it will be a complete disaster. Or maybe they're afraid others will think they're a fraud.
Marketers also have issues with technology. People think they can't go live because they don't have this webcam, that phone, or a decent lighting setup. Those are excuses for people who are simply scared of getting on camera and communicating their message.
Everyone gets nervous, explains Ian, who's trained as a professional singer. He feels it too. The key is to channel your nervous energy into your performance.
If you feel nervous or scared, Ian says, it's a good thing. It shows you care. The best performance Ian ever gave was when he was absolutely petrified before he went on stage. The worst performance was when he was entirely complacent. He thought the performance would be absolutely fine, and it turned out to be a disaster.
To help you overcome that fear, Ian recommends warming up your voice before each broadcast. Exercise the lower part of your voice up to the high part of your voice. These exercises will likely make you feel a bit more at ease.
Also, when you warm up, using the high and low parts makes your voice more engaging. By using your vocal range, you're not trying to become a different person. You're heightening your personality by putting more energy behind it.
Listen to the show to hear Ian's example of a vocal warm-up and what your voice might sound like if you don't warm up.
Basic Apps
The easiest apps for live broadcasting are web-based. Fire up your browser (Safari, Chrome, Internet Explorer, etc.), and go to the tool's web page.
BeLive, probably the best-known app, has an advantage because has a free trial. You can broadcast up to two 20-minute broadcasts...

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Wed Jun 17 03:00:53 PDT 2015

Do you use LinkedIn to prospect for new business?
Want to reach a highly targeted professional audience with your message?
LinkedIn ads are an excellent way to increase visibility and generate leads.
In this article I’ll explain the different types of LinkedIn ads and show you step by step how to set them up to reach the ideal audience for your business.
Listen to this article:
Why LinkedIn Ads?
No matter what industry you're in, it's likely your business audience is on LinkedIn. The platform's 350+ million users are almost entirely businesspeople, so why not use ads to get in front of your ideal prospects? Ads increase your visibility, and therefore improve the "know, like and trust" factor.
If your advertising budget equals or is more than $25,000 a quarter, you can get access to some amazing (and premium) advertising tools such as Lead Accelerator, display ads, sponsored InMails and sponsored groups.
The alternative, which is perfect for small- to medium-sized businesses, is sponsored content (similar to Facebook news feed ads or sponsored tweets) and text ads (similar to PPC ads on Google, or Facebook ads).
While LinkedIn ads tend to be more expensive than other platforms, they can be worth the money if you use their specific targeting options (companies, titles, education, etc.) and do micro-campaigns (instead of doing one big campaign that reaches 50,000 people, do 50 micro-campaigns that reach 1,000 people each). This reduces the cost, is easier to track and gives you more visibility.
There are two ways to set up ads: cost per click (CPC) and pay per impression (mille) (PPM).
When you do sponsored content, go with CPC, because people don't click through as much on sponsored updates. LinkedIn will keep showing your ad until they get their money, which is why micro-targeting is such a good idea. This is perfect if your strategy is to start getting recognition and visibility.
When you do text ads, go with PPM. These ads are a good option for lead generation. For example, you can send a white paper or another incentive to get someone into your marketing funnel. Once folks feel like they know you because of your sponsored updates, they'll be more likely to click on the link, and then you'll have them in your funnel.
#1: Get Started
To use any ads on LinkedIn, you need to have a company page, which is easy to set up. Just click Interests and choose Companies from the drop-down menu. On the next page, click the Create button. Then input your company name and email address, and click Continue. Upload logos and content, and you're good to go.
To set up an ad, go to the LinkedIn Ads page. Click Start Now to get started and then select the ad you want to set up.
#2: Set Up a Sponsored Ad
To set up a sponsored ad, click on Sponsor Content. First, type in a name for your campaign.
Choose something specific that you can easily recognize and track. Then select your company. If you manage pages for a lot of companies, you'll get several options.
Now, choose an update that you've already created or create direct sponsored content. The limitation of doing direct (new) sponsored content is that you get fewer characters to work with.
To promote an update you've already created, you can use 600 characters plus an image. If you choose to promote new, direct sponsored content you'll have to limit your ad to 160 characters, and it won't show up on your company page. If you want to offer something that you don't want to show up on your company page, this is the route to go.
Once you've selected the content, do your targeting. Choose your audience, and at the very least, you have to choose a location. Be as specific as possible.
Then you can target by company or category (industry or company size). Focus on job title, job function or job seniority, as well as education. Another option is to target by group, because if you share a group,

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Tue May 17 03:00:52 PDT 2016

Is social selling part of your LinkedIn marketing strategy?
Do you know how to measure and track your efforts?
LinkedIn gives businesses a number of metrics for tracking the effectiveness of their marketing throughout the selling process.
In this article, you'll discover how to measure and track the effectiveness of your social selling on LinkedIn.
Listen to this article:
What Is Social Selling?
Social selling is the process of developing and building relationships via social networks by providing valuable content to your target audience. Ideally, this occurs at each stage of the buyer's journey, which are specific points buyers go through to make a purchasing decision. Those three stages are awareness, consideration, and decision-making.
Here's how you can measure your success at reaching prospects at each of these stages.
#1: Monitor Awareness Metrics
With LinkedIn, you can monitor several short-term results of your social selling efforts, such as an increase in your number of personal connections, content shares and likes, and follower engagement with your company page and showcase pages. These indicate increased awareness and visibility of your business.
A great strategy is to include employees in your social selling process, which will increase the likelihood that potential customers will learn about you and eventually follow your LinkedIn company and showcase pages.
Number of Connections
It's easy to track the number of LinkedIn connections you and your employees have, which provides a meaningful data point for your long-term social selling efforts.
Why does this data point matter? Let's say that 30 of your employees are part of your LinkedIn employee engagement program, and they actively share and promote company-related content and information. Assuming that each employee has an average of 200 connections, this means you could potentially have 6,000 people viewing and engaging with content related to your company.
If you can get your employees to share content authentically, it'll have a bigger impact because humans want to connect with humans within their trusted networks. By leveraging this human network, you can harness the ripple effect.
Content Shares and Likes
Implementing a sophisticated content marketing plan is a huge component of your social selling strategy. You need to develop a focused content roadmap around your target audience.
A great way to get started is to do a content gap analysis to see what pieces are currently missing from your existing content.
Develop a team-based content calendar to ensure that your team shares high-quality content on a regular basis, either by publishing articles or sharing status updates. Eventually, that content gets served to their personal connections. In return, your employees' connections may end up following your LinkedIn company and showcase pages. You can then monitor and track the number of times people share, like, or comment on company-related status updates. This will give you a clear picture of which content resonates with them.
As an administrator of your company's LinkedIn page, you can access your page's analytics to see which topics people gravitate towards and what topics you can phase out. In the example below, the last status update reached 529 people. Five people clicked on the post and also interacted with it, resulting in an overall engagement level of 1.89%.
To boost your inbound marketing efforts, feed this information back into your search engine optimization strategy.
Number of Followers Who Find and Engage With Your LinkedIn Company and Showcase Pages
One of the goals of having your employees share company-related content via their personal LinkedIn profiles is to grow the follower base of your LinkedIn company page and showcase pages. This strategy boosts the visibility of your digital assets, and you'll be able to reach entirely new audiences you didn't have access to a...

As many of you know, cognitiveSEO likes tackling in-depth, extensive digital marketing topics. We like going all analytical with our blog posts and case studies. There are two reasons behind it. One – to find as many solutions as possible to questions we marketers have. Two – we enjoy to dive deep into research and […]

by Sherice Jacob @ The Kissmetrics Marketing Blog

Tue Sep 12 12:16:37 PDT 2017

When I say “segmentation” with regards to marketing, what comes to mind for you? Chances are, you immediately think of email segmentation. Segmenting your emails is crucial to improving your customer engagement and conversion rate. But although emails are the most widely talked about segmentation type, there are countless others. Unfortunately, it’s a process that’s […]

by @ Social Media Marketing Podcast helps your business thrive with social media

Fri Feb 14 03:00:48 PST 2014

Have you considered podcasting for your business?
Are you wondering if now is the right time to start?
To learn about the amazing growth and the opportunities that exist for marketers, I interview Michael Wolf for this episode of the Social Media Marketing podcast.
More About This Show
The Social Media Marketing podcast is a show from Social Media Examiner.
It's designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.
The show format is on-demand talk radio (also known as podcasting).
In this episode, I interview Michael Wolf, who is the host of the NextMarket Podcast. He's also the chief analyst at NextMarket Insights, where he tracks the growing world of podcasting. Michael's approach to analyzing podcasting is unique.
Michael shares the research he carried out to help him discover more about podcasting, and where the market is headed.
You'll discover why the business category is one of the biggest areas for growth, and the reason why advertisers are now taking notice.
Share your feedback, read the show notes and get the links mentioned in this episode below!
Listen Now
You can also subscribe via iTunes, RSS, or Stitcher.
Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show:
Podcasting for Marketers
Research carried out to discover more about podcasting for business
Mike is an analyst and loves to dig deep into topics that are normally around technology and media. However, because he's a big fan of podcasts, he noticed that more people had started to use them, although he didn't see a corresponding change in attitude from people in the media world.
Over the last five years, podcasting has been viewed as a less popular form of media. Even online and new media startups haven't embraced it. So Mike decided to dig in and find out why.
Mike talked to many people including big-name hosts like Adam Carolla, Ira Glass from This American Life and Steven Dubner from Freakonomics. He also had contact with people behind the scenes at organizations such as Libsyn and Microsoft.
During his research, Mike recorded all of the conversations he had with these people, which led to an article he wrote for Forbes in April 2013 called "Funnymen and iPhones: Why the Podcast Is Finally Coming Into its Own."
Listen to the audio clip below to find out what Adam Carolla had to say.
http://soundcloud.com/nextmarket/a-podcast-about-the-podcast
Apple has primarily owned the investment side of podcasts with iTunes. The podcast world hasn't seen great investment in technology, developers or venture capitalists.
You'll find out the kind of momentum Mike has seen when it comes to the investment side of this platform, and what podcasting categories have shown a lot of growth.
Listen to the show to find out what the 2013 Social Media Marketing Industry Report revealed about what marketers thought of podcasting.
Has podcasting seen any kind of uptick in 2013, and if so, why?
Mike explains how the teams at Libsyn and SoundCloud, which host the files, have seen phenomenal growth. Also some of the big-name podcasters have seen traffic reach new records in download numbers every month.
All of the signs are from a metrics perspective. When you talk to people about their numbers, there is definitely growth.
When you look at the iTunes charts, you'll notice there are new podcasts launched every day/week across a number of categories.
Mike says that part of the reason for the growth of this platform is that a lot of people see podcasting as a less crowded channel than blogging. It's also a form of deeper engagement.
You'll discover what has created the perfect storm for this new growth in listenership, and why new technology built into cars will produce a whole new opportunity.
Podcasts are a multitask platform that allows people to give you 20 minutes or so of their time every day or week to listen to you.

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Wed Mar 30 03:00:03 PDT 2016

Are you taking advantage of all of LinkedIn's content marketing features?
Do you know what types of content work best on LinkedIn?
With a few tweaks to what you post on LinkedIn, you can build brand awareness, generate leads, and drive more revenue.
In this article you'll discover how to maximize your LinkedIn content exposure.
Listen to this article:
#1: Share From Your Company Page
Your LinkedIn company page is where you can catch the eye of prospects and build relationships with customers.
Share content that is valuable to your audience, answer questions, and solve problems. This allows you to nurture genuine relationships with your followers and build brand awareness with your ideal prospects.
This Symantec update drives registrations for an upcoming webinar. Company updates that contain links can have up to 45% higher follower engagement than updates without links.
Suggested time commitment for success: 1 hour daily/4 hours weekly/10 hours monthly.
Use this list of suggestions for what to share on your LinkedIn company page:
Links to your latest and best white papers
Ebooks
Case studies
Industry articles
Helpful how-to content
Bright visuals (visual is the new headline!)
Post three to four times a day and engage with and respond to followers' comments. Be sure to change your header image every six months to avoid creative fatigue.
Intel's company page celebrates a company milestone in this update.
This Volvo update announces a product enhancement that will appeal to their target audience.
#2: Post to SlideShare
LinkedIn SlideShare has more than 70 million monthly unique visitors, and nearly 4 million visitors (on desktop alone) on an average day. With 13,000 new pieces of content added daily, SlideShare is a platform you can't afford to overlook.
Barry Feldman of FeldmanCreative shares a nicely designed, helpful social media basics ebook on SlideShare.
Suggested time commitment for success: 30 minutes daily/2 hours weekly/6 hours monthly.
Use this list of suggestions for what to share on LinkedIn SlideShare:
Company videos
Webinar and conference recordings
Influencer videos
Product how-tos and tips
Company presentations
Webinar decks
Infographics
Well-designed short and informative content
HubSpot shares slides from Dharmesh Shah's talk at the 2016 SaaStr Conference. The slide deck features lessons on SaaS, pricing, culture, MBAs, and customer happiness.
To ensure you succeed with SlideShare, upload new content weekly, highlight decks on profile pages, group content into playlists, and add lead forms to help achieve lead-generation goals. You can also link your SlideShare presentation to your website to gain a quality inbound link.
In this special video presentation, authors Mark Schaefer and Brian Solis explore the new idea of engineering customer experiences and a new marketing trend.
Tip: Use the SlideShare Clipping tool to highlight and share valuable content you've produced with your networks.
Ultimately, you can build authority by developing LinkedIn SlideShares that present a unique point of view on industry news, insights, or your company culture.
#3: Publish on Publisher
More than 1 million people have published more than 3 million posts on LinkedIn's publishing platform. About 45% of readers are in the upper ranks of their industries, including managers, VPs, and CEOs.
Brian Solis, principal analyst at Altimeter Group, shared his personal takeaways, aspirations, and highlights from SXSW with a creatively perceptive cartoon ebook.
Suggested time commitment for success: 1 hour weekly/3 hours monthly.
Use this list of suggestions for what to publish on LinkedIn Publisher:
Professional expertise and experiences
Industry trends
Lessons learned
To ensure you succeed with LinkedIn Publisher, publish whenever you feel passionate or on a monthly basis.

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Tue May 03 03:00:51 PDT 2016

Do you want to add video to your social media content mix?
Looking for ways to keep production costs low?
Creating a video doesn't have to cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars in high-end production tactics like live actors or 3-D renderings.
In this article you'll discover how to create and promote social media video on a budget.
Listen to this article:
#1: Decide What to Feature in Your Video
Here are four ways you can create great video content without breaking the bank.
Repurpose User-Generated Content
A great example of repurposing user-generated content for a video comes from Coca-Cola, which leveraged their "Share-a-Coke" campaign into big corporate success.
To incorporate this strategy in your own marketing, encourage your audience to tell their own stories on social channels like YouTube and Facebook using your campaign hashtag (which was #ShareACoke in the Coca-Cola campaign). You can then aggregate memorable content and repurpose it into broadcast-worthy video spots.
While Coke launched its campaign around the Share-A-Coke idea, the soft drink giant tracked and grew their global efforts through the aforementioned hashtags. As a marketer, you can leverage readily available user-generated content and create a winning campaign even without a Coca-Cola-sized budget.
Collect Royalty-Free Content
The first step is to determine whether there is enough free content about your subject available online (the definition of "free" is content with no royalties). Resources like Flickr and YouTube are great places to start this research. If you want to do a viral video about lamps, for example, do a keyword search on Flickr for "lamps" and see how many compelling images you can find about the topic.
Create Your Own Content
If you feel that you don't have enough content available, you may need to simply grab an iPhone and snap your own pictures or record short video snippets.
Marketing consultant and social media coach Mark Schaefer spoke recently on how he worked with a small family-owned winery in France and struck gold with a simple video called "How to Open a Bottle of Wine Without a Corkscrew."
The video, without any paid media behind it, generated over 10 million views and catapulted the winery to stardom. One fascinating postscript here is that this video was amazingly successful when 221 other videos posted didn't achieve quite the same notoriety. Persistence is key here.
Record Others
Taco Bell generated 150,000 views on YouTube by simply recognizing a trending hashtag called "Drawing My Life" and then filming an artist as he drew simple thoughts about the brand.
While Taco Bell certainly has the budget and the creative chops to create its own spots, hashtags, and launch campaigns, it's staggering to note how easily the fast-food chain generated buzz just by riding the coattails of another trend.
Regardless of the type of video content you choose, the trick is to keep it simple. The reality of user-generated content or even self-generated content is that you immediately cut out thousands, if not millions, of dollars in cost. Additionally, from a branding perspective, you add a degree of authenticity to your voice by placing a true image of your customer in front of other customers.
#2: Create Your Video
So Taco Bell pulled off a great video with very little cost. The question is: How can you do it? Creating content that people actually want to see doesn't have to be difficult. If you create compelling content, users will engage with it in the form of shares, likes, comments, and even direct lead creation.
You don't need extensive video editing skills, but those always help. You can use affordable editing tools like Adobe Premiere Pro to edit and build complex storyboards. If you're just getting started and don't want to invest in anything, you can use YouTube's free and quick Creator Studio,

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Mon Sep 07 02:00:55 PDT 2015

Do you want to expand the online visibility of your business?
Have you thought about leveraging your personal social media profiles?
Optimizing your personal profiles to highlight your business is a great way to raise awareness.
In this article you'll discover how to use your personal LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook profiles to promote your business.
Listen to this article:
#1: Showcase Your Business on LinkedIn
Some people view LinkedIn only as the network to use when you're looking for a job. In reality, LinkedIn can provide a variety of benefits for your business, ranging from increased website traffic to new strategic opportunities.
Your LinkedIn personal profile is a great way to develop new business and network with prospects. The two profile areas that you need to focus on are the Header and Experience.
Header
The Header is often the first thing that catches the attention of visitors. Many of the sections within the Header are brief facts and self-explanatory.
However, the professional headline section is the most customizable. After visitors look at your name and profile photo, the headline is the next likely place they'll look when forming an impression about you and your company.
To edit your LinkedIn Header, open your profile, hover over the Header section and click on the pen icon to the right of the information you want to edit.
Here are some tips for writing your LinkedIn headline:
Be concise. Summarize your industry, skill set and anything that sets you apart from the competition. LinkedIn limits the headline section to 120 characters.
Use keywords. Think about the words that your ideal client or target market would likely be searching for on LinkedIn. Or include topics that come up often in conversations about your business. For example, when speaking with potential clients, you might frequently be asked about a certain aspect of your experience. Consider including it in your professional headline to spark a conversation with clients who have an interest in that area.
Experiment with new headlines. After you've developed strong headline copy, don't be afraid to make adjustments if your business needs a change or you haven't found the results you were looking for. Consider testing different keywords as you learn more about what your ideal clients are interested in.
Experience
The other important profile section to focus on is Experience. You can use up to 2,000 characters in this section, so it can be much more detailed and highlight the benefits of your business.
On your profile, scroll down to the Experience section and hover over the text. The editing options should appear immediately. At the top of the section, you'll find buttons to reorganize your work history, create a new position or add images, presentations, documents or videos.
Consider adding two to three paragraphs explaining your company's objectives and include a list of how your contributions affect these goals. This way, you're branding your business and yourself simultaneously.
Additionally, include visual elements such as SlideShare presentations, links to work samples or portfolios, branded video content or any other content that helps visitors learn more about your company. Visual content helps attract your visitors' attention to each section of your profile.
#2: Brand Your Profile on Twitter
Twitter is an excellent platform for adding a human element to your business, distributing relevant industry-related content and keeping an eye on social conversations about your brand.
If you want to align your personal Twitter efforts with your business goals, focus on providing content that serves your clients' needs and represents your business in a positive way. Each profile affiliated with your business should look the part and follow company branding standards.
Start by visiting your Twitter profile and clicking on the Edit Profile button.

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Mon Nov 09 03:00:20 PST 2015

Do you want to sell your products on Twitter and Pinterest?
Have you considered using Buy buttons?
Adding Buy buttons to your tweets and pins lets people purchase your products right from their social feeds.
In this article I'll share how to add Twitter Buy buttons and Pinterest Buy buttons to your products.
Listen to this article:
Twitter Buy Now Buttons
Although it was announced a year ago, Twitter finally made the Buy Now button available on the platform to businesses in the United States.
Retailers of all sizes can add a Buy button to their tweets. The price of the product or service is also displayed, and consumers can make purchases without leaving Twitter.
"The goal [is to] make it as easy as possible for businesses to connect directly with, and sell to, customers on Twitter," says Nathan Hubbard, Twitter’s head of commerce. "With Buy Now, businesses can drive more conversion and remove much of the friction in the mobile purchasing process."
Implement Twitter Buy Now Buttons
Twitter has made it easy to get started with their Buy button.
If you use Bigcommerce, Demandware or Shopify, follow the appropriate link to discover how to integrate the Buy button with your platform.
Here, I'll share how to set up the Twitter Buy button on your products using Stripe Relay.
First, create a Stripe account, if you don't already have one.
Now, connect your business Twitter account to your Stripe account. You can do that in your Stripe Relay settings, as shown below. Just go to Apps, sign in with Twitter and click Enable.
The next step is to set your shipping and tax policies. Shipping can be free or a flat rate. Tax can be included or a percentage. Go to Relay Settings to put in your preferences. These costs will be automatically factored into purchases.
Once all of the basics are complete, you're ready to create products. Go to your products page and simply click "Create your first product."
Next, fill in all relevant information.
Now that your product is set up, you'll see a tweetable URL for that product on your Stripe dashboard. Use that URL in a tweet and the "Buy Now" button is automatically added to your tweet. Twitter users will then be able to purchase your product right from the platform.
Whenever an order is created, you will receive an email through your Stripe account that you can view in your Stripe dashboard.
Twitter's Buy button is still in the beginning stages of use, so we can expect to see numerous changes in the near future. However, with major brands such as Best Buy, PacSun and Adidas all signing on, it's clear the impact on the social commerce space is just starting.
Pinterest Buy It Buttons
Over the summer, Pinterest introduced a blue Buy It button for pins. Since 93% of pinners have the intent to purchase, this is the ideal platform for a brand that wants to expand their online business.
These buyable pins fit right into the news feed, and allow browsers to purchase from pins without leaving the platform. Buyable pins are currently only available on Apple devices in the United States with payments processed through Apple Pay or any major credit card.
The good news for businesses wanting to try buyable pins is that Pinterest is not taking a portion of sales. Pinterest's hope is that they can monetize from an increase in promoted pins.
Big brands such as Macy's, Nordstrom and Michael's have already jumped on board. Homemade goods shop Madesmith says that 7% of their sales are coming from buyable pins. "Pinterest has been the most effective discovery platform for Madesmith since we launched in 2013," explains co-founder Nadia Rasul.
Implement Pinterest Buy It Buttons
As of now, companies need to use Demandware, Bigcommerce, Magento, IBM Commerce or Shopify to implement the Pinterest Buy It button. Your ecommerce platform will walk you through the specific process of adding buyable pins through their site.

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Mon Jul 25 02:00:48 PDT 2016

Do you want to improve awareness for your business?
Have you considered collaborating with influencers?
Working with influencers to promote your product or service to their audience is an effective way to meet your marketing objectives.
In this article, you'll find four influencer marketing examples and ways to connect with influencers.
Listen to this article:
#1: Boost Sales
To encourage people to purchase your product, work with an influencer to promote a discount code to their audience.
Swedish watchmaker Daniel Wellington collaborated with thousands of influencers on Instagram to post images along with a caption that included a discount code for 15% off Daniel Wellington watches.
The watches are positioned in a setting that's natural for the influencer, as you can see in the image above from artist David Ambarzumjan, and below in the image posted by blogger Adriana Gastélum.
This campaign helped Daniel Wellington evolve from a $150,000 startup into a brand that's worth $220 million in less than five years, and increase profits by 214% between 2014 and 2015.
#2: Build Brand and Product Awareness
If you want to build awareness for your brand or a new product, consider reaching out to engaged and dedicated audiences through influencers. To make the most of that outreach, ask your influencers to use a branded hashtag when they post.
Top fashion brand Chanel made full use of branded hashtags to build anticipation and awareness for their new perfume Chanel No. 5 L'Eau. They invited influential Instagrammers like Jessica Mercedes Kirschner to their production facilities and flower fields located in Grasse, France, for an inside look at how Chanel makes their iconic perfumes.
As each influencer shared interesting images from the tour with their audience, they included two branded hashtags: #newchanel5 and #chanelgrasse.
Chanel even worked with top bloggers like Julie Sariñana from Sincerely Jules, whose original post generated more than 40,000 likes on Instagram.
Within one month, the campaign generated more than 1,600 unique contents with the hashtag #newchanel5, garnering almost 1 million likes, and exposing the upcoming product to more than 9 million social media users.
#3: Increase Foot Traffic
People can easily see through fabricated content. That's why authenticity is key when you want to make a compelling case for people to experience what you have to offer.
When you work with influencers to promote a destination, genuine reactions are more likely to encourage people to take action, rather than a post that's too heavy on scripted endorsement.
The Hawaiian Tourism Authority focused on authenticity when they chose to work with top travel Instagrammers to showcase Hawaiian experiences that made people feel they could have the same experience.
They collaborated with several top Instagrammers including Jordan Hershel, who's known for visiting some of the most scenic locations across the globe. He posted beautiful images that communicated an alluring picture of Hawaii, reinforcing the islands' reputation of being a traveler's paradise. Each image was accompanied by the hashtag #LetHawaiiHappen.
The campaign generated almost 100,000 posts using the hashtag, and the Hawaiian Tourism Department managed to reach 54% of travelers across the U.S. using social media marketing and paid advertising. What's more, 65% of users who saw the campaign intend to visit Hawaii within the next two years.
#4: Improve ROI
Marketing can be expensive. Especially if you're a startup or small businesses, it's important to look for cost-effective methods to market your business and products. To launch an effective influencer marketing campaign without exceeding your marketing budget, you can partner with mid-level influencers.
Try The World wanted to raise awareness for their range of food subscription boxes. Instead of hiring a top-tier celebrity,

by Christie Huber @ DialogTech

Thu Sep 14 13:20:48 PDT 2017

As a fellow marketer, I’m sure you are as focused on your daily search ROI as we are. It can be hard to optimize for the present, much less consider what might impact your search ROI in the future. We all know that smartphones have already changed search forever, but there are also new and emerging trends in voice search […]

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Tue Jan 12 03:00:15 PST 2016

Are you responsible for reporting your social media results?
Do you need to develop a reporting system?
Knowing who you report to and what metrics they need will help you streamline the process and ensure you're delivering reports on time.
In this article you'll discover how to develop a social media reporting system for your business.
Listen to this article:
#1: Identify Stakeholders and Goals
The first step is to do a quick audit of your current reporting process and find out which stakeholders receive your reports. If you know whom you're reporting to and why, you can ensure your reports will be useful to everyone involved.
Find out who receives the social media data in your organization. You may send reports to one person, but that person may then forward them on to others. Also, different teams have different needs. For example, a PR team may have different expectations than a community management team.
Next, discover what actions your reports support so you don't waste time reporting on metrics no one uses. Talk to the people you report to, find out their needs (and wants) and see what you can learn about the current state of your social media reporting. You'll likely find some overlapping goals and be able to identify areas of commonality.
If you're the sole owner and consumer of social media reporting in your company, identify what you need to know about your performance and what you'll do with this information. Try to distill it to a few clear goals, which will make everything easier in later steps.
#2: Decide What Metrics to Track
When deciding what to include in your reports, find metrics you can use in multiple situations and have some business benefit for your stakeholders. Just because you can report on something doesn't mean you should. And the more metrics you include in your reports now, the more metrics you'll have to keep supporting in the future.
Here's an overview of the metrics that really matter:
Reach or exposure: Measure the size of your potential audience.
Volume: Track the conversation size and number of brand mentions.
Engagement: Analyze the quantity and type of engagement your accounts and posts get.
Audience: Learn who participates in a conversation, along with the most active users and influencers.
Content: Monitor your top-performing (and worst-performing) posts.
The metrics you use will depend on your needs and the social networks you're measuring, but these core concepts are a great start.
In addition to the general metrics above, you'll probably have a few specific needs or requests from stakeholders you need to support. That's great, because the more relevant and targeted your reports, the more useful they'll be for your business.
However, avoid creating custom metrics or anything you'll need to calculate manually, unless they're really important. You'll likely regret this later. It can take a long time to handcraft special calculations, especially if you're not entirely sure how you did it the last time.
Above all, be consistent. Make sure you're reporting the same metrics in the same way each time. Add in percentage changes and other benchmarks to make it easy for your audience to interpret the results.
#3: Choose the Right Tools
There are many social media measurement and analytics tools you can choose from. However, only a few tools will help you get the precise information you need.
Keep in mind that no tool is going to be exactly what you're looking for. There are so many ways to analyze social media that every tool has a different perspective. Plus, social data is far from perfect and the kind of information that you can pull from a particular social media channel will vary depending on the channel.
However, there is a product out there for you.
Ask these questions when you're researching a new tool:
Where does it get its social data?
What kind of relationship does it have with the social ne...

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Tue Nov 17 02:00:41 PST 2015

Do you schedule social media updates?
Want to know the best days and times to share?
Creating a social media calendar helps you deliver a steady flow of content to your followers.
In this article you'll discover how to create an effective posting schedule for your social media updates.
Listen to this article:
#1: Determine a Daily Posting Frequency
Just like you plan a blog schedule, consistent social sharing can help you stay top of mind. A calendar of when you plan to post to each platform helps you see when you have gaps in your sharing schedule or when you have too much going on at once.
Take these informal guidelines into account when deciding how many times you'll post on each social network.
Socialbakers reports you should post to Facebook once a day for the best engagement.
For Twitter, Salesforce recommends you start with one to four tweets a day.
Data directly from LinkedIn and compiled by Buffer suggests you'll reach 60% of your connections if you post on LinkedIn 20 times a month.
SumAll recommends you pin five times a day.
Brands can safely post to Instagram up to 15 times per day.
One glance at your social media calendar and you'll know where to fill in gaps and remove extra messages from the overcrowded days and times.
#2: Post at the Right Time of Day
Once you know which days you'll be posting to each network, you'll need to find the best times to share your content on each platform.
Don't just pick a few times to regularly share content. Try different times each day to give your social media schedule some flexibility for best results. Use trial and error, and check engagement stats to find the best times to share from your own accounts.
Analyzing data from QuickSprout, Buffer, Fast Company and others to find the best times for social media posts, revealed the following insights:
Try posting to Facebook on Wednesdays at 3 pm, Thursdays and Fridays from 1 to 4 pm, and Saturdays and Sundays from 12 to 1 pm.
Tweet from 12 to 3 pm, and at 5 pm during the workweek.
Post to LinkedIn just outside of working hours (7:30 to 8:30 am, and 5 to 6 pm) and on lunch breaks at 12 pm on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.
Pin from 2 to 4 am and 2 to 4 pm.
Avoid posting to Instagram from 3 to 4 pm on Mondays and Thursdays.
Note: Most of those studies analyzed data in the United States. With 80% of the U.S. population in the Eastern and Central time zones, those time zones may be your best bet for optimal reach.
#3: Share Your Content More Than Once
Some people create great content, and then lose out on a ton of traffic because they only share it right after it's published, and only one time per social network.
Sharing your content more than once can get you 3,150% more traffic all within your first day of publishing.
Imagine what could happen if you spread out your social media sharing to publish links to your content throughout the week, month and year after the original publish date.
Here's a schedule for sharing your content multiple times on social media:
Schedule social messages to announce new content right when it publishes.
Share your post again a few hours later on the same day. A tweet’s average lifespan is 18 minutes, so sharing it again, even on the same day, increases your visibility.
Schedule a few more social messages for the following day to get the word out, while the content is still fresh.
Drip a few more social messages the following week to reach people who missed it the first time around.
Scatter at least one message per week, over the course of the next month, on all of your networks.
#4: Vary Your Message
Mix up your social messages to keep your updates fresh on different sites. This is especially important when you share your content more than once.
Here are some ideas for crafting different messages for a single piece of content:
Reference quotes from people in your posts.

by @ Social Media Marketing Podcast helps your business thrive with social media

Fri Nov 16 03:00:08 PST 2012

Do you struggle to create and promote videos?
Are you wondering how to make videos that go viral?
To learn about the creative process of coming up with video ideas and making them happen, I interview Mark Malkoff for this episode of the Social Media Marketing podcast.
More About This Show
The Social Media Marketing podcast is a show from Social Media Examiner.
It's designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.
The show format is on-demand talk radio (also known as podcasting).
In this episode, I interview Mark Malkoff, a comedian and filmmaker.
Mark shares his love and passion for creating videos and several amazing stories behind his viral videos.
You'll learn about his process for creating video and how to get traction.
Share your feedback, read the show notes and get the links mentioned in this episode below!
Listen Now
You can also subscribe via iTunes, RSS, or Stitcher.
Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show:
Video Creation and Promotion
Mark has created several viral videos and has been featured on many television shows. You'll hear about the stories behind these videos and what he accomplished to get this media attention.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwYxuV2dVzw
Mark shares how he grew up in love with comedy, the path he took before he started making videos and how he started making viral videos. Mark describes himself as a comedian at heart and the biggest comedy nerd. He feels that his love for comedy shines through in his work.
The stories behind Mark's videos
You'll hear the story behind Mark's first very successful video: the 171 Starbucks mentioned above. This is when he visited and consumed purchases at all 171 Starbucks locations in Manhattan in less than 24 hours.
Just after this 171 Starbucks story, Mark approached IKEA with a project of living and working in an IKEA store for a week. And after 2 months of being persistent, they agreed.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9q0sB_Xp6A
Mark's IKEA story brought the most publicity in the USA in the history of IKEA as a company. And IKEA ended up winning the PR Week of the Year Award for the campaign. But to Mark, it was all about the video content and his videos on this project got 1.8 million views.
Listen to the show to discover the secrets behind his success.
The goals behind Mark's videos
You'll learn how Mark's goal is simply to do things that make him laugh and challenge him. Sometimes brands are involved and sometimes they aren't.
Mark tells the story of when he got carried across New York City by 155 individuals, 9.4 miles in 11-degree weather.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gi4ClspNrNs
The aim of this video was to prove to the world that New Yorkers are nice. The video was a success.
Sometimes brands come to him and other times he has to knock on their doors.
Listen to the show to find out why Ford Motor Company was one of the best brands Mark has worked with.
The process of creating a viral video
Mark shares his process to come up with ideas for the videos he makes. You'll learn how he goes from the ideas to creating a video project. And you'll probably be surprised by the amount of research and training involved behind the scenes for Mark's videos.
Mark shares his experience of having hours of video and trying to tell the story in a short video for YouTube.
Listen to the show to find out how he tests his videos.
The story in the video
Mark explains how it's his own curiosity that resonates with his audience.
The story behind the Apple Store Challenge was to see what he could get away with in the Apple store. The video got over 1 million views on YouTube. Parts of the challenge included taking a goat into the store, ordering a pizza to be delivered there, dressing up as Darth Vader to get his iPhone repaired and a date night for him and his wife.

by @ Social Media Marketing Podcast helps your business thrive with social media

Fri Jul 05 03:00:04 PDT 2013

Do you want to understand the science behind why people share?
During this fascinating interview I explore these very concepts.
To learn the reasons why people widely share content, I interview Jonah Berger for this episode of the Social Media Marketing podcast.
More About This Show
The Social Media Marketing podcast is a show from Social Media Examiner.
It's designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.
The show format is on-demand talk radio (also known as podcasting).
In this episode, I interview Jonah Berger, author of The New York Times bestseller, Contagious: Why Things Catch On. He's also a marketing professor at the Wharton School and columnist for BusinessWeek.
Jonah shares the reasons behind why people engage with word of mouth and why marketers should pay attention to this.
You'll learn about the 6 principles that drive people to share.
Share your feedback, read the show notes and get the links mentioned in this episode below!
Listen Now
You can also subscribe via iTunes, RSS, or Stitcher.
Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show:
Why People Share
How Jonah become fascinated by the reasons people engage in word of mouth
As a scientist, Jonah thought it would be interesting to study why things go viral or why certain stories circulate around the water cooler.
He grew up studying math, chemistry, computer science and material science and thought it would be interesting to apply these hard science tools to social science problems.
It was after reading the book The Tipping Point that he was inspired to think about these things and soon realized there hadn't been a lot of research done on the subject.
Listen to the show to find out why he spent his academic career trying to study these things and bottle the phenomena.
Why social media marketers should pay attention
Jonah starts with how a lot can be done with social media and that there are tons of content out there already from many brands and organizations. Some content does better, but it's not about luck and it's not random.
Jonah and his team spent a decade doing research to try to understand why people share word of mouth. With the 6 principles they discovered, you can make it more likely for your own posts to be contagious. People will share them and pass them onto others.
You'll find out what the research entailed and how it led to the discovery of the psychological drivers behind sharing.
Word of mouth can be over 10 times as effective as traditional advertising. People trust word of mouth more. It's also more targeted than traditional advertising. Plus it's cost-effective, if you can get it to work.
It doesn't cost you anything to get people to talk about your brand. However, it requires you to understand why they are talking about some things rather than others.
Following the rigorous academic research, Jonah decided to write the book Contagious to help people apply the insights, so their products and ideas could take off.
Jonah explains how when the science was applied to a number of different companies to increase word of mouth in a given campaign, there was an increase of 20-50%. You can definitely guarantee more views and more shares when you follow the 6 principles.
Listen to the show to find out what you need to do to help activate your existing customers and get them to spread that message to more potential new customers.
The 6 principles in Contagious
Jonah gives the high-level of each principle, which is called the STEPPS framework. These 6 principles drive people to talk and share.
Social currency
Triggers
Emotion
Public
Practical value
Stories
These steps are based on psychology. It's about being able to understand the motivation or the drivers that cause us to pass things on.
Some people wonder if you need all 6 principles for it to work.

by Joseph Shih @ Twinword, Inc.

Mon Jul 24 18:43:32 PDT 2017

Google search volume data is important no matter what your online business is. There is no reason to sell something over the internet if no one is searching for it there. Thus it is important to have the correct keyword search statistics. Whether you are setting up a paid search campaign or […]

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Mon Aug 24 03:00:08 PDT 2015

Are you curious about the latest Facebook ad changes?
Wondering how to take your Facebook ads to the next level?
Facebook has gone all in to provide businesses with tools and targeting options to connect with customers and prospects in the moments that matter.
In this article I'll share the five biggest things to happen with Facebook ads.
Listen to this article:
#1: Call Now Button Connects You to Mobile Users
Facebook launched a local awareness initiative in 2014 that gave advertisers the option to add a Get Directions call-to-action button to their ads. This year Facebook took it up a notch with the Call Now button.
This is an important lead generation tool for businesses of all kinds, but especially local businesses. It basically takes an entire stage right out of the funnel. Rather than send people to your website or Facebook page hoping they'll contact you, the Call Now button allows you to let people call you directly from your ad.
Smart targeting on Facebook can get you in front of motivated consumers on mobile. Adding the Call Now button gives people a direct link to convert from the ad, no extra steps required.
#2: Dynamic Product Ads Sync With Sales Catalogs
As powerful as Google Shopping ads are, it only made sense that Facebook would enter this arena, too.
Though they serve a similar purpose, Facebook’s product ads do not work in the same way as Google's product listing ads. Facebook's product ads are actually more like Google's dynamic remarketing display ads. They use Facebook's targeting parameters, or the consumer's history on your site or in your app to serve ads.
The ads are template-based, meaning you don't have to spend time on new creative for each ad. The templates pull images, product names, pricing and other attributes from your catalog, based on the keywords you've provided. This catalog integration also means your ads will stop running once your product is out of stock.
Best of all, these templates work for news feed and sidebar ads across all displays, so you don't need separate ads for desktop, tablet and mobile.
#3: Carousel Ads Come to Mobile
Facebook launched carousel ads last year, but this summer they extended the option to mobile. This format has a lot of interesting possibilities, thanks to its ability to display multiple images with different links within one ad unit.
This mobile carousel ad from Tinker Crate spotlights different features and views of their product.
This spring, Neiman Marcus used carousel ads to showcase shoe and handbag collections and reported three times more conversions and 85% higher click-through rates, compared to standard ad units. The average lift in conversion across early testers was 12%.
Given the natural inclination to swipe sideways on mobile, carousel ads are an intuitive, seamless ad format for mobile users that gives you a creative, engaging way to tell stories.
#4: Updated Ad Tools Boost Productivity
A June overhaul gave Facebook Ads Manager and Power Editor facelifts, as well as added functionality.
On the Power Editor side, this release offers a more logical interface, but also enhances bulk editing and advanced search capabilities.
Ads Manager has a more streamlined feel, with performance metrics featured more prominently. Facebook said the update means "advertisers can quickly reference how their ads are performing in the same environment where they create and edit them." Essentially, you now create your ads and manage them in one place.
What's particularly awesome about this update is that you can bulk-edit the targeting and budgets for several ads at once and use the Create Similar option to duplicate ads and campaigns.
If you aren't seeing these new features yet, don't worry. They're rolling out globally in the coming months.
#5: Ads Manager App Brings Campaign Management to Mobile
Small- and medium-sized advertisers rejoiced earlier this year when Facebook released...

This is a TRUE & SUCCESSFUL story from Bill Sebald – founder at Greenlane, with 15 years of eCommerce & SEO experience in the background, written and documented by himself. Within 24 hours, we saw our rank improve from #5, for one of the term we were optimizing for, to #2 in the search […]

by Bill Sheikh @ Tulsa SEO | Tulsa Website Design | SEO Tulsa

Wed Nov 25 16:20:38 PST 2015

The text content on your website is not only important for generating sales and leads for your business, but it’s also a must for SEO-Search Engine Optimization. The more unique and keyword rich original text content that you have on your website, the better it is from a search engine optimization perspective. Since we are […]

by @ Social Media Marketing Podcast helps your business thrive with social media

Fri Dec 04 03:00:25 PST 2015

Do you know what to do if your Facebook page vanishes?
Want to be ready when and if that day comes?
To share what happened when the Social Media Examiner Facebook page disappeared and how we handled it, keep reading.
More About This Show
The Social Media Marketing podcast is an on-demand talk radio show from Social Media Examiner. It's designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.
In this episode I am joined by Erik Fisher, community manager of Social Media Examiner.
Erik and I will explore what happened when our Facebook page disappeared.
You'll discover what to do if the same thing happens to you.
Share your feedback, read the show notes and get the links mentioned in this episode below.
Listen Now
You can also subscribe via iTunes, RSS, or Stitcher.
Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show:
How Our Page Disappeared and What We Did About It
Finding out
On a late Sunday afternoon with my home filled with kids and cousins and my wife cooking dinner, I eased into the couch to watch a football game. Since I drained the battery playing with my new iPhone, it was charging in another room when a text message came at 4:12 PM: “We have a bit of an emergency. Our Facebook page is missing. You around?” I had missed the text.
The phone rang 12 minutes later, and my wife picked it up. Our community manager Erik Fisher was calling to tell me what happened. Between the time he texted me and when he called, Erik poked around Facebook and confirmed it. The Social Media Examiner Facebook page had disappeared.
And I mean it was really gone. I even received a notification that my personal profile was incomplete because it didn’t list where I worked.
I checked to see if I could view the page on mobile or on my laptop, if I could get into the admin side of the page and if the Facebook Fan widget appeared on our site. The answer for everything: no.
Listen to the show to learn why it's important to instruct your team to call you in an emergency situation.
First thoughts
Initially, I thought we’d been hacked. Then I recalled how after I did the Chalene Johnson story we'd taken all the steps necessary to secure the accounts of all of our staff.
We secured email with 2-step authentication to our corporate Gmail accounts and we turned on Facebook Login Approvals. Plus, we recently completed a security audit of everyone on our team, and have a master document of who has administrative access to what. These are all steps you can take to secure your business accounts, and you can hear more about how to implement them in the podcast.
Listen to the show to hear our thoughts about "what if" the page was gone permanently.
First steps
After I got off the phone with Erik, everything around me faded into the background. Within minutes I posted the following to friends only:
Ok friends, our Social Media Examiner Facebook page has fully disappeared from existence? Anyone have any suggestions on what to do?
Posted by Michael Stelzner on Sunday, November 8, 2015
Initially, I decided to share it only to friends just in case there was something nefarious going on. Later on, I changed the status to public.
Here are some of the questions people asked me:
Did your admin accounts get compromised?
Are you spending enough to have a dedicated rep?
Any notifications from Facebook?
Are you accidentally unpublished?
Did you move it to the Business Manager?
The answer to all of these questions was "no." I searched all over to find out how to submit my issue to Facebook. I reached out to my network and someone eventually told me about the Report Pages that Disappeared form.
I also found where Facebook hides its support responses.
Listen to the show to discover what I determined I should have done at the beginning.
Reaching out to friends
I've been developing relationships with folks for ye...

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Tue Mar 01 03:00:02 PST 2016

Is more than one person involved with your social media marketing?
Are you looking for a way to improve collaboration on marketing projects?
Whether your team is within an office building or scattered around the world, Slack's third-party app integrations make it easy to create a customized collaboration center.
In this article you'll discover how to customize Slack for social media team collaboration.
Listen to this article:
Why Slack?
Slack, an online communication tool for teams, is designed to replace email.
Team conversations take place in chat rooms, or "channels." You can create channels for different projects or topics. You can also direct message individuals and select groups of people. All of the content that you post on Slack is searchable, including files, conversations, people, and notifications. Just enter a keyword or two in the search box at the top right and press Enter.
Slack will integrate with many third-party tools, such as Google Drive, Trello, Dropbox, Heroku, Crashlytics, GitHub, Runscope, and Zendesk. It also will support community-built integrations.
Here's how to integrate third-party tools with Slack and use key Slack features to communicate with your social media marketing team.
#1: Choose Apps to Integrate With Slack
Slack allows you to connect a variety of third-party apps. Explore the directory to find apps that will help your team. Screenhero and Google Hangouts are two communication apps in particular that you'll likely want to connect to your team's Slack account.
Screenhero
Screenhero is an app that lets your team use screen sharing for collaboration.
Screen sharing is an easy way to present your ideas to the group without having to send files back and forth. Everyone can jump in and get problems solved quickly and efficiently without wasting time on logistics.
You can initiate screen sharing with your co-workers by using the "/username" command. Coolest of all, Slack allows everyone to use their own cursor to point out elements in the shared screen.
Google Hangouts
No matter how much you love using Slack, not all of your vendors and clients are going to feel the same way. This is where Google+ Hangouts' Slack integration comes in handy.
Google+ Hangouts chat is the perfect way to communicate quickly and efficiently with people who work outside of your Slack environment. You can also integrate a Hangouts chat with any communication method on Slack: channels, private groups, or direct/group messages.
You don't have to switch between the two applications, which is a huge timesaver. Plus, it provides everyone with easily searchable instant messages. Both you and the other party keep a record of each conversation.
#2: Install App Integrations
To connect third-party apps with Slack, go to www.slack.com/apps. In the search box at the top of the page, enter the name of the app you want to integrate with Slack.
Once you select the app, you see a page with details about it. Click the Install button to install the app to your team's Slack account.
On the next page, click the Add [app name] Integration button, and the app will be installed.
Next, you have the option to customize the username and icon for the integration.
After you make your changes, click Save Settings.
#3: Explore Other Slack Features
Three of the most useful (and fun) built-in Slack features are Quick Switcher, Recent Mentions, and Create Your Own Emojis. Here's how to use and access these features.
Quick Switcher
Quick Switcher is the fastest way to jump to a conversation in Slack. To open the box below, press Command+K on the Mac or Ctrl+K on Windows.
You can now quickly navigate a list of your channels, groups, and direct messages.
Tip: Quick Switcher is just one of many features you can access with a keyboard shortcut. To see the full list of shortcuts, press Command+? on the Mac or Ctrl+? on Windows.

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Tue Feb 16 02:00:35 PST 2016

Do you need to update your social identity?
Are you looking for a simple way to make sure all your social channels are consistent?
In this article you’ll discover a checklist that will help you rebrand your social media profiles.
Listen to this article:
#1: Give Your Audience a Sneak Preview
Some companies purposefully keep their rebrand under wraps until the last minute. While this shock-factor approach will likely generate press, it can be risky if people react badly. To stay on the safe side, give your audience a sneak preview of your rebrand.
To do this, post something from your new company (your new logo or images from a new marketing campaign, for example) on social media. Announce the change and ask people what they think.
This makes your audience feel like you value their opinion and allows you to gather feedback before launching the rest of your rebrand. It also gives your audience time to adjust to the idea, and you'll generate anticipation and excitement for the launch.
In the example below, Cultures for Health uses a sneak preview photo that offers enough information to generate excitement, without giving it all away.
Once you've launched a new visual identity, it's a good idea to get feedback on what your audience thinks about it. This isn't about whether people like your logo; it's about more tangible things that can affect revenue.
Is your new blog easy to navigate? Does your audience relate to your brand story on social media? You can post a quick survey on Twitter or Facebook to ask these questions and then use the results to make improvements.
#2: Update Your Social Media Profiles
Have you designed a sleek, modern visual identity to accompany your rebrand? Great! Now it's time to show it off.
Be sure to update your profile photos and hero photos on all of your social media accounts or add them to new accounts if you've completely scrapped the old ones. This isn't just about profile photos. It's about making sure your social media sites visually represent your company's new identity.
For example, you may need to change your Twitter theme to match your new colors. Or you may want to create a new Pinterest board showcasing elements such as your packaging design or imagery.
In addition to standard social media profiles like Facebook and Twitter, make sure you edit review sites such as Yelp, Foursquare and TripAdvisor. If you don't have a presence on these sites, now is your chance to create one.
If you're a B2B company, you might have reviews on sites like Capterra or G2 Crowd. You also might have a presence on directories like Angie's List, so it's important to be thorough with this search, no matter your industry. It will only add to your brand consistency and boost awareness.
You also need to update your social media profile handles. This seems like a no-brainer, but you'd be surprised how many companies get this wrong.
When creating new social media usernames, here are two important points to keep in mind:
Choose a handle that's spelled correctly and arranged sensibly. This makes it easy for users to locate your new accounts. It also makes your account names more memorable, which means your audience will be more likely to engage with you.
Create a consistent social media name across all channels. Before you do this, make sure your desired handle is available on each social platform. You don't want to change half of your usernames only to find out another company already owns it on one channel.
#3: Revamp Your Google Business Page
If you don't have a complete Google Business profile, you could be missing out on opportunities for new customers. Make sure your Google Business page is up to date with your most current information so local customers can easily find you.
The first thing you want to do is create a customized URL. Then add photos or images and include information about your company such as your address,

by @ Social Media Marketing Podcast helps your business thrive with social media

Fri Jun 17 03:00:07 PDT 2016

Do you create YouTube videos?
Want to get them seen?
Amy Schmittauer is here to help you discover how to get your videos to rank in search.
More About This Show
The Social Media Marketing podcast is an on-demand talk radio show from Social Media Examiner. It's designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.
In this episode, I interview Amy Schmittauer, a video marketing expert, public speaker, and host of the Savvy Sexy Social YouTube video series. Amy helps marketers with YouTube and social media tips and explores how to get your videos to perform better in search.
You'll discover what goes into creating the headline, description, tags, and thumbnail for your videos.
Share your feedback, read the show notes and get the links mentioned in this episode below.
Listen Now
You can also subscribe via iTunes, RSS, or Stitcher.
Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show:
How to Get Your Videos to Perform in Search
Centralizing video
Amy recommends to always consider the platform before uploading a video. Don't plan to create an awesome Snapchat story with the intent to upload it to YouTube. That derails your focus. The most important thing is to recognize the platform and deliver a product that will be welcomed in the context of that situation, whether it's Snapchat, Instagram, Vine, or YouTube.
How you would present a video on YouTube is very different than how you would present a video on Facebook, especially since you want to create something successful for a specific environment.
There's one exception to keep in mind. An influencer who wants to build a Snapchat portfolio needs to find a way to retain that material (a place to put it to be rewatched), since it will expire in 24 hours.
If you create content on YouTube, it may make sense to edit in footage from Instagram, Snapchat, a live stream, or something else to give a little context. However, a Snapchat story, uploaded in its original form to YouTube, will not do as well as it would on the original platform.
Someone took a bunch of Zach King's Vine videos, strung them together, and put them on Facebook and YouTube, which caused him to explode. So I asked Amy if material from Facebook Live could easily go up on YouTube. She said it could, but the platforms are still different environments.
Facebook Lives aren't always as fun on playback, she explains. Also keep in mind that if you get on Live and are just sitting there, going through some sort of programming or curriculum, and talking to comments, it's going to drag on. It doesn't matter if it's 10 or 30 minutes, it won't be fun for anyone on YouTube to watch in a replay.
If you broadcast with more intention (for example, mention big news that just happened) and possibly reference a couple of comments here and there (but stay focused), that may be a good repurposing opportunity for YouTube. You want the audience to feel like they're having a similar experience to when it was live.
Amy says Facebook and YouTube are about the same in terms of uploading. You take a produced piece of content, upload it, and put it out to the audience subscribing to that channel, whether it's a YouTube page or Facebook page or profile.
However, when people watch a video on YouTube, it's an intentional move. They have to go to a video and click Play. Then the audio and video immediately begin.
On Facebook, and now on Instagram, posted videos are put in the viewers' faces. When people scroll though their feed, they may or may not see it and they may or may not click the Play or Audio buttons to watch and listen. Plus, the audio on Facebook goes on when the viewer clicks it, so they could start listening at any point in the video.
Viewers go through a different thought process before they decide to watch a video on either one of these platforms.
Listen to the show to learn why you want to put videos of similar le...

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Wed Jan 06 03:00:16 PST 2016

Do you want to boost engagement on Twitter?
Have you thought about running a Twitter contest?
Twitter contests are a creative, fun way to attract more followers, engagement and shares on the platform.
In this post you'll discover how to run a Twitter contest for your business.
Listen to this article:
#1: Identify the Objective
Successful marketing starts with clear goals, and this is true for Twitter contests, too.
Think about what you hope to achieve with your contest. For example, you might want to increase traffic to your website or collect email signups from potential prospects. Or perhaps you're keen to increase the number of followers or generate more brand mentions on Twitter.
Deciding on the goal of your campaign is key, as it will inform the type of contest you launch.
#2: Choose a Prize
The prize has an important bearing on the overall success of your contest. Choose something that is highly relevant to your brand or related to your company or services in some way. A free iPad is an impressive prize, but it's unlikely to generate long-term gains or brand engagement unless your company offers iPad-related products or services.
A Twitter contest isn't an opportunity to offload that box of branded pens or last year's merchandise though.
Do a brainstorming session with your team and discuss what types of prizes are likely to excite your loyal followers and inspire new ones. Opt for prizes that are useful, exclusive or seasonal to generate more interest.
This is obviously easier for consumer-focused brands, such as those that offer retail, fashion, tech and edible products. However, service-based businesses can package a service or offer tangible prizes like ebooks, branded stationery, free memberships or access to exclusive training materials.
You could also team up with other brands or companies and offer a prize bundle to make the reward even more substantial or compelling.
#3: Select a Contest Type
When selecting a contest type, it's important to consider the barrier to entry for the contest and how it will affect the number, quality and relevance of entries you receive.
For example, a simple contest that requires only a retweet will have wider appeal than one that also requires people to upload a photo or answer a question. However, this additional level of effort will help to separate half-hearted followers from those who are really invested in your brand or product.
There are a variety of different Twitter contests that work well. Here are three types to consider for your business.
Sweepstakes
A sweepstakes contest is perfect if your main objective is to drive followers to a landing page on your website. When you tweet about the contest, share the link to your landing page and include text that drives people to enter the competition on your website.
Keep in mind that including a number in your tweet, as Rosetta Stone did in this example, increases retweets by 17%, according to Twitter.
The level of success of this type of contest will be influenced by the number of followers your brand already has on Twitter. Without a request for retweets or replies, this contest is unlikely to increase brand reach or grow your followers.
However, because the contest is hosted on your website, you can promote it on your other social media channels and in your email campaigns, too.
Tool tip: Tools like Wishpond or Woobox make it easy to launch custom sweepstakes Twitter contests and manage entries.
Retweet and Follow
Reward loyal fans with an exclusive contest and encourage new followers with a retweet and follow contest. This is a good choice if you want to boost your reach on Twitter, encourage retweets, attract new followers and increase @mentions of your company's Twitter handle.
To encourage more engagement on Twitter, ask followers to submit a photo or answer a quiz to qualify. For example,

by @ Social Media Marketing Podcast helps your business thrive with social media

Fri Sep 15 03:00:02 PDT 2017

Want your ads to reach an enthusiastic niche audience?
Have you considered collaborating with YouTube video influencers?
To discover how to work with influential YouTube creators, I interview Derral Eves.
More About This Show
The Social Media Marketing podcast is an on-demand talk radio show from Social Media Examiner. It's designed to help busy marketers, business owners, and creators discover what works with social media marketing.
In this episode, I interview Derral Eves, one the world's top YouTube video marketing experts. He's consulted with many of the world's largest YouTube channels and is also the founder of VidSummit, an industry conference for video creators, agencies, and brands.
Derral explains how to collaborate with YouTube influencers and maximize your ads budget.
You'll discover what you need to know about how to disclose influencer/brand relationships.
Share your feedback, read the show notes, and get the links mentioned in this episode below.
Listen Now
Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show:
How to Work With YouTube Influencers
Derral's Story
Since 1999, Derral has worked with brands and businesses through his agency. Originally, Derral's focus was using search engine optimization to increase websites' visibility. After YouTube came along, his agency began optimizing clients' lead generation videos on Google.
Derral helped the owner of a pest control company quintuple his business, and over a year, helped The Piano Guys go from being unknown to having 1.8 million subscribers and hundreds of millions of YouTube video views.
Through his work with The Piano guys, Derral saw the power of audiences and the influencing power of his client. He was shocked at how engaged and excited people could get about sharing someone else's vision, mission, and purpose.
Through YouTube, The Piano Guys created a tribe and became visionaries. They brought people together and spread their uplifting message to the world through music and visual representation. People who work together and grow communities can ultimately change the world, Derral believes.
Derral decided to focus solely on developing audiences and building influence and sold off the other portion of the business around 2007 or 2008. Since this transition, Derral has been especially attracted to projects and people that are making a difference in the world. Derral and his company have helped 14 different channels start from scratch, reach more than a million subscribers, and generate 21 billion video views.
After working with every vertical on YouTube, Derral has found a system for creating audiences. Also, he's learned how influencers affect their tribe and get people involved in changing the world.
As Derral and his team have navigated this landscape, they've learned that influencers aren't a new trend. They've been around since the beginning of time. People are put in positions of influence.
Derral has also learned that the way influencers communicate and interact with fans can make a big difference. By simply interacting like a regular person with their audience, influencers can have a positive impact on people.
Listen to the show to hear Derral give an example of a great interaction between a fan and an influencer.
Why Work With YouTube Creators?
One of the biggest challenges an agency faces is how to get the most visibility for their clients. You can always pay for an ad; however, influencers can make an impact that an ad can't because the fans who engage with a specific creator or influencer are willing to listen and take direction from that influencer. Those fans have a sense of loyalty to the influencer, who's already part of their lives.
When agencies look for the most effective way to reach their intended audience, they have choices. They can do a targeted ad, integrate an influencer in the ad and target the influencer's demographic,

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Mon May 23 02:00:14 PDT 2016

Do you want more exposure for your content?
Have you considered publishing your content on Apple News?
Apple News lets you deliver both visual and text-based content directly to a growing number of iOS mobile devices.
In this article, you'll discover how to become an Apple News publisher.
Listen to this article:
What Is Apple News?
Apple News is a preinstalled application on every iOS device (version iOS 9 or later). The app delivers traditional text-based content, videos, and photo galleries from a variety of sources, including magazines, websites, and newspapers.
Anyone in the US, UK, and Australia can sign up as a publisher and produce content for Apple News. Once you publish an article, it's added to the Apple News app, and the content is automatically optimized for all iOS devices. This ensures that readers have a great experience, no matter which device they're using.
Before you can publish content for Apple News, you need to sign up as a publisher. Here's how to get started.
#1: Sign Into iCloud
To start the sign-up process, go to http://www.icloud.com/newspublisher/ and then click Continue.
Sign into your iCloud account with your Apple ID (which is your device's associated ID). You'll need to accept the end user license agreement to continue.
#2: Provide Publisher and Channel Information
On the next page, fill out your publisher information and then click Next.
You'll also need to provide additional information to set up your channel. When you're finished, click Next.
#3: Upload a Logo
You now have the option to upload a channel logo. (Note: You can skip this step.) Make sure your logo is a PNG file with a minimum size of 256 pixels square. The file size limit is 2MB. Click here for more details about logo specifications.
Note that after you complete your registration, Apple will review your logo, and if it doesn't satisfy the requirements, they won't accept your application, and you may have to start over again.
#4: Choose a Publishing Format
Next, you can choose from two different publishing methods: RSS feed (there's no change in user experience, which means you can't use Apple's article format) or the Apple News Format, which optimizes your content for iOS devices.
Use the Apple News Format
To use Apple's News Format for your content, all you have to do is to click Sign Up for Apple News Format. Once you click the button, your application will automatically be sent for review.
Use the RSS Feed for Your Blog or Website
To use the RSS feed for your website or blog, click on I'd Rather Use RSS for Now. This choice takes you to the next step where you have to provide the RSS feed of your website.
It's easy to find your feed URL. Visit your website and right-click anywhere on the page. From the menu, select Inspect Element or Inspect.
Once the window appears with the HTML code of your page, use the Find feature (press Ctrl+F on Windows, Command+F on a Mac) and search for "RSS." It will then be highlighted on the screen like this.
Copy your feed link and then paste it into the form. When you're finished, click Next. After accepting the terms and conditions, you can submit your application. You're all set! Apple will review your application and get back to you within a few days. Note: Ads served by Apple are not available if you only present your content via RSS.
#5: Submit Articles for Approval
After you're approved as a publisher, you're required to submit some articles for review. To do that, you can either create an article in News Publisher or use your existing content management system (CMS).
To create an article in News Publisher, sign in and select News Publisher from the menu. If you need further information about the features, check out the official guide.
If you prefer to connect your CMS with News Publisher, you'll need to use a plugin or write the code yourself. Fortunately,

by bosmolskate @ SEO Optimizers

Mon Sep 12 10:19:59 PDT 2016

Conversion rate optimization, or CRO, refers to practices and techniques that are used to increase the number of users that reach your landing pages and convert into paying customers. It’s a wide field with a lot of different practices, but there’s a major divide here: mobile and desktop users. The techniques that work for a…

by @ Social Media Marketing Podcast helps your business thrive with social media

Fri Jul 04 03:00:15 PDT 2014

Do you want to know more about your customers and prospects so you can serve them better?
Are you wondering what social CRM is and how your business can benefit from it?
To learn how social CRM can help marketers, I interview Kyle Lacy for this episode of the Social Media Marketing podcast.
More About This Show
The Social Media Marketing podcast is a show from Social Media Examiner.
It's designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.
The show format is on-demand talk radio (also known as podcasting).
In this episode, I interview Kyle Lacy, director of global content marketing and research at Salesforce ExactTarget Marketing Cloud. He's authored numerous books, including Twitter Marketing for Dummies and Social CRM for Dummies.
Kyle shares why social CRM is important for marketers.
You'll discover some of the best CRM solutions available, what their basic functions are and how social CRM can help with social media ROI.
Share your feedback, read the show notes and get the links mentioned in this episode below!
Listen Now
You can also subscribe via iTunes, RSS, or Stitcher.
Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show:
Social CRM
The difference between customer relationship management (CRM) and social CRM
Kyle states that customer relationship management (CRM) and social CRM are combining. CRM manages all of your customers' data, and when you add the word social, it takes in all of the social data too.
Whether you want to sell to customers or retain them, social CRM just adds those social data points. This can be a Facebook profile, Twitter account, etc.—basically anything that has to do with social media.
It's the ability to manage all of your data points around the customer within a single software source.
Listen to the show to find out why Kyle doesn't distinguish between the two.
The definition of CRM systems
Kyle explains that a CRM system is software that allows you to manage every single touchpoint you have with your customers. For example, their email address, what they bought previously from you, their Twitter handle, and so forth. It's really based on what level of business you have.
So if you're an enterprise company, then the CRM solution would be Salesforce. However, if you're a smaller company, Nimble would be a great alternative.
CRM systems are anything to do with a customer interaction. This can be either in a store or online.
Listen to the show to discover why these people aren't just customers, but prospects too.
Why social CRM is important for marketers
Kyle refers to Mary Meeker's State of the Internet report that was released at the end of May this year. He thinks that we have reached a point where social media has hit maturity, and for us to realize the true value of it, we have to be able to connect it to our customers who are already in our systems.
For example, if a retailer has 1000 customers within their CRM solution, they need to be able to find the social pieces of data that connect them to these existing customers. As a business, you want to turn these customers into advocates. To do this, you need to manage your data around the customer.
Kyle believes that from a social standpoint, it allows you to recognize the true value of social and you can use it to communicate more effectively.
You'll discover how you can drive more sales when you combine customer email addresses with their social networks.
One of the biggest things that Kyle sees right now is marketers who use the one-click sign-on using Facebook on their website. When a customer visits your website and signs in through Facebook, you get all that customer's information. There is so much data you can pull when you connect with customers on a social network.
Listen to the show to find out how social CRM can improve your advertising effectiveness while reducing your customer servic...

by @ Social Media Marketing Podcast helps your business thrive with social media

Fri Oct 02 03:00:19 PDT 2015

Do you give presentations or speak to clients?
Want to illustrate your knowledge with better stories?
To discover how to improve your stories, and your storytelling, I interview Michael Port.
More About This Show
The Social Media Marketing podcast is an on-demand talk radio show from Social Media Examiner. It's designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.
In this episode I interview Michael Port, the author of NYT best seller: Book Yourself Solid. He also teaches workshops called Heroic Public Speaking, where he applies the craft of acting to public speaking. His latest book is Steal the Show: From Speeches to Job Interviews to Deal-Closing Pitches.
Michael will explore how to find, use and create stories in your marketing.
You'll discover tips to improve the delivery of your stories.
Share your feedback, read the show notes and get the links mentioned in this episode below.
Listen Now
You can also subscribe via iTunes, RSS, or Stitcher.
Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show:
The Art of Story
Michael's story
Michael shares how he started his career as an actor. He has a master from the graduate acting program at New York University. Michael worked professionally on the shows Sex and the City, Third Watch, All My Children, Law & Order and 100 Center Street, as well as in the films The Pelican Brief, Down to Earth and The Believer. He earned a living doing commercial voice overs for companies including AT&T, Pizza Hut, Braun, Coors Beer, MTV and others.
After he left acting, Michael says he decided to talk his way into a job for which he was completely unqualified. He pitched himself, got the job and worked his way up in the fitness industry on the business side. He credits his post-acting success to being an actor, as he was able to perform during life's high-stakes situations.
When the spotlight and eyes are on you, the way you perform will determine the quality of your life, Michael says.
After Michael left the fitness industry, he went into consulting for businesses and started writing books, and he saw it more and more. Over the last 13 years, Michael realized he had to meld his experience and training as an actor, his experience as a professional keynoter and what he knows about the business world.
That's what Steal the Show is about, Michael says. Half the book is on the techniques associated with being a great public speaker and the other half is focused on performing during life's everyday situations.
Listen to the show to learn more about how Michael coaches speakers, as well as why he originally resisted helping people with their public speaking.
Why people love stories
People love narrative, wonder and imagination, Michael says. Stories can get us out of our own head and into another world. We turn everything into a story, he continues. Politics, religion, love, our success or our failures become stories. Sometimes the stories we tell actually get in our way and sometimes they can change the world.
Michael talks about a researcher named Jonathan Gottschall, who studies the neuroscience behind stories. Jonathan says the constant firing of our neurons in response to fictional stimuli strengthens and refines the neural pathways that lead to skillful navigation of life's problems.
Listen to the show to discover in what way projects are stories.
How to find your stories
People sometimes draw a blank when they start to work on a presentation or prepare for an upcoming meeting, because so many things have happened over the years. Those experiences and stories are not top of mind, since you are more likely thinking about today and tomorrow.
There are four different prompters for the discovery part of the process. Take a piece of paper and write out four columns, one for each of these categories. Then, when you go to craft a speech or presentation for a sales pitch,

by Jeffrey_Smith @ SEO Design Solutions™ Blog

Wed May 03 05:00:26 PDT 2017

In case you were wondering how to systematically achieve saturation for multiple keywords for your website in search engines (instead of just a few) using SEO, then this is a must read post. This tactic is specifically designed to work in Google using the allinanchor / keyword relevance ratio to back links pointing at your Read More

by @ Social Media Marketing Podcast helps your business thrive with social media

Fri Jul 31 03:00:23 PDT 2015

Do you own or manage a local business?
Are you leveraging the full power of online reviews?
To discover how to leverage online review services, I interview Martin Shervington.
More About This Show
The Social Media Marketing podcast is an on-demand talk radio show from Social Media Examiner. It's designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.
In this episode I interview Martin Shervington, one of the world's leading experts on Google+ and Google for Business. As a trainer, speaker and consultant, he helps marketers understand how to best utilize Google's services.
Martin will explore online reviews for local businesses.
You'll discover how to get reviews for your business, as well as how to respond to negative reviews.
Share your feedback, read the show notes and get the links mentioned in this episode below.
Listen Now
You can also subscribe via iTunes, RSS, or Stitcher. How to subscribe on iPhone.
Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show:
Online Reviews for Local Businesses
Google for business
In June 2014 Google launched Google My Business, which simplifies how people set up pages. Part of this is for local businesses, so they can appear on a map, get reviews and so on.
Martin has been doing research on this and says businesses are not quite connecting the dots on Google+ marketing and using this powerful tool. He says as of last year, only 37% of businesses had claimed their Google listing, 63% have not.
Listen to the show to discover more about Google My Business.
The impact of reviews
Martin has spoken to hundreds of businesses (owners and staff) about reviews. People use reviews as a socialized way to judge the businesses around them, which get more customers as a result of reviews.
For example, Martin shares, Tasty Thai in San Mateo can attribute thousands of dollars of revenue to one single positive Yelp review from a guy who had been to Thailand and loves their Thai food.
At the moment Yelp has a lot of people's attention, and Martin hopes Google reviews will get to that level as well.
Reviews can bring tourists, new people and new business. The downside is there's the potential for negative reviews.
"[Businesses have to have] good service, good product and sometimes be willing to say when you haven't got it 100% right," Martin says.
Listen to the show to hear about an amazing experience I had while traveling, based on a Yelp review.
Google listings
Martin explains how Google sometimes auto-generates a business listing, and a lot of people's businesses are listed without them knowing about it.
To determine if your business has an auto-generated listing, Google your location to see if anything comes up. If it doesn't, go to Google.com/business to set one up. If it is already set up, click where it says "claim this listing," so you can control uploading photos, reply to posted reviews and more. When you set up a page on Google they verify it by phone or by mail.
There are two different types of local pages, Martin continues, a storefront and a service area. If you run your business from home, say you are a service area to hide your address.
Once you've claimed your property or set up your page from scratch, there are several things you can do: change the profile image (which is the icon people see when you make comments or reply to reviews), change your cover photo, manage your photos, add what you do to the description area, post on that Google page, reply to reviews, share reviews and more.
You can even embed the best reviews on your website. This is how you take the social proof you get from reviews and spread it onto your website.
The Google My Business dashboard provides a higher-level frame-of-reference around the things that are connected to your business, such as analytics, your YouTube channel, the page insights and the Google+ page itself.

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Mon Jun 06 02:00:33 PDT 2016

Do you use Twitter to find prospects?
Looking for a better way to organize relevant conversations?
You can use your favorite RSS reader to monitor customized Twitter searches, Twitter lists, and hashtags that relate to your business.
In this article, you'll discover how to set up RSS feeds to easily monitor and manage a steady flow of Twitter leads.
Listen to this article:
Why Create RSS Feeds From Twitter
Among social networks, Twitter has some major advantages to the social seller. It's generally acceptable for anyone to chime in on any conversation at any time. There's a mind-boggling volume of activity, and a great deal of it is relevant to prospecting.
Many marketers find Twitter's web interface and mobile app to be less useful for mining opportunities, however. A better option to consider is to use an RSS reader app like Feedly, which makes it easy to organize feeds by theme, priority, stages in the buyer's journey, and any number of other useful parameters. Reader apps can be used as "asynchronous" queues, whereby aggregated content stays put until you view it.
Here are step-by-step instructions for setting up Twitter timelines and organizing them into RSS feeds for maximum lead generation efficiency.
#1: Create Targeted Twitter Timelines
Create and Save Twitter Advanced Searches
Twitter advanced searches can be goldmines to social sellers. You can set up queries that involve parameters like language, geographic location, sentiment, and the appearance of question marks. This helps you keep your finger on the pulse of what relevant people think of various brands and products, what they want to learn more about, and what their pain points are.
For example, say you notice people asking about the best solution to pain points that your product is perfect for. If you're quick on the draw, you can jump in with content that answers users' questions and reach out to provide more advice if they're interested.
To see who's talking about your company, type your company name in the Twitter search box, located at the top-right corner of the screen. On the results page, you'll see a list of tabs: Top, Live, Accounts, Photos, Videos, and More Options.
Click on More Options, and from the drop-down menu, select Advanced Search.
From here, you have virtually endless Twitter search refinement options. You can zero in on tweets with certain words, phrases, and hashtags, as well as the language they're written in.
If you want to target when people are replying to your tweets (or anyone else's), add the relevant username in the To These Accounts box. Also choose whether you want to include positive, negative, questions, and/or retweets.
When you're finished, click Search and then check out the results. If you need to refine your search, just click the Back button. Once you're satisfied with the search parameters you've set up, save the search by clicking More Options and selecting Save This Search.
Repeat this process to set up advanced searches for the queries you want to track in your RSS-powered dashboard.
Tip: Trying to set up a search that's returning results you aren't sure about? You can use the free tool from Warble to test-drive your advanced searches as daily email alerts. See what your queries return for a few days before you go through the RSS-creation process. It's also a good long-term option if you'd rather see tweets as emails than use an RSS reader.
Subscribe to Relevant Twitter Lists Curated by Others
Twitter lists can help you segment the Twitter accounts you monitor, making it easy to keep abreast of what's happening among specific groups of people and companies. You can use lists to monitor accounts without following them, so it's a great way to keep an eye on the competition, too.
There are thousands of existing public lists that others have spent years curating and maintaining. Finding and subscribing to these can be useful when setting...

by @ Social Media Marketing Podcast helps your business thrive with social media

Fri Apr 25 03:00:55 PDT 2014

Do you want to know if your content and social activities are supporting your business?
Are you wondering how you can use Google Analytics to track your progress?
To learn how to use Google Analytics to help make smart marketing decisions, I interview Andy Crestodina for this episode of the Social Media Marketing podcast.
More About This Show
The Social Media Marketing podcast is a show from Social Media Examiner.
It's designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.
The show format is on-demand talk radio (also known as podcasting).
In this episode, I interview Andy Crestodina, author of Content Chemistry and co-founder of Orbit Media (a Chicago-based web design agency). Andy has also written for Social Media Examiner and he's a Google Analytics expert.
Andy shares how to use Google Analytics to help you make informed marketing choices.
You'll discover why analytics are so important to your business success and step-by-step instructions on how to get started.
Share your feedback, read the show notes and get the links mentioned in this episode below!
Listen Now
You can also subscribe via iTunes, RSS, or Stitcher.
Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show:
Google Analytics
Why go beyond the basic metrics of blog comments, social share numbers and page views?
Andy explains that these basic metrics will not give you return on investment (ROI) information. The formula he uses is traffic × your conversion rate = success, which can be leads, subscribers or ecommerce customers.
The more you're aware of how things are connected and the deeper you look down the funnel, the more equipped you'll be to make better decisions. It's just like the dashboard of a car.
You'll hear what happened when I looked a lot deeper into the analytics of a Social Media Examiner article that ranks number one in Google search, and why it made me realize that it wasn't doing as well as I thought.
As a marketer, you need to reprogram your mind to what really matters, and it's not what immediately meets the eye.
Listen to the show to find out why it's so important to pay attention to the conversion rate.
Do you need to be a data nerd to benefit from all of this?
Andy says that you don't have to be a data nerd. The only math you need to know is that anything times zero equals zero.
Andy relates it to a Magic 8 Ball. You can ask a question, shake up the analytics and find the answer. As a marketer, you need to know how to look at these numbers. It gets easier over time. For every action you take, you can measure it and see if it works, and then make improvements.
Listen to the show to find out why Google Analytics is similar to using Photoshop.
Common mistakes marketers make with Google Analytics
According to Andy, it always comes down to the setup of Google Analytics. There are two or three basic steps you need to take in the Admin section of Google Analytics that make your data much more meaningful.
One of the first things you need to do is filter out the traffic from your own IP address. Until you do this, your analytics will be polluted by your own activity. Within the Admin section, you can create an IP address filter.
To find out what your IP address is, just type "What is my IP?" into Google search, and it will give you the number. You'll discover what to do with this number in the dashboard to ensure your results are more meaningful.
The next step (which is important) is goals. Until you set up your goals, you'll only have half of the picture.
Listen to the show to find out what's important if you are a relatively low-traffic site or you're into content or social media marketing.
The definitions of goals and conversions
A conversion is when a visitor takes an action on a website. There are different types of conversions and analytics that you can set up,

by @ Social Media Marketing Podcast helps your business thrive with social media

Fri Sep 13 03:00:20 PDT 2013

Do you use social media to grow your business?
Are you wondering how social media can help you sell more products and services?
To learn about why you need to rethink the sales process in this social age, I interview Tom Martin for this episode of the Social Media Marketing podcast.
More About This Show
The Social Media Marketing podcast is a show from Social Media Examiner.
It's designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.
The show format is on-demand talk radio (also known as podcasting).
In this episode, I interview Tom Martin, author of The Invisible Sale: How to Build a Digitally Powered Marketing and Sales System to Better Prospect, Qualify and Close Leads. His agency is Converse Digital.
Tom shares the concept of painless prospecting and propinquity.
You'll learn how to succeed in the changing social media sales landscape, and how your business can embrace these new strategies.
Share your feedback, read the show notes and get the links mentioned in this episode below!
Listen Now
You can also subscribe via iTunes, RSS, or Stitcher.
Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show:
Selling With Social Media
How the online world has changed the way businesses sell
Tom believes it's more about how buyers buy than the way businesses sell. With the Internet, people can hide behind the anonymity of Google search.
You can do all your pre-purchase research without having to talk to a salesperson. You only have to talk to a person once you've made a short list of companies you are interested in and want to close the deal.
Today's buyer prefers this process, as it's easier and more efficient. With this in mind, companies have to adjust.
In the early days, the power was with the salesperson, but with the knowledge available online today, the power is in the hands of the consumer.
Tom says as a business, you have to stop thinking about how you sell because you don't really sell anymore. Instead you help buyers make a buying decision. When they make their decision, hopefully it will be in your favor. Although it won't always be the case.
You'll discover how your system needs to be set up properly and the approach you need to consider.
If you have a really good product or service, more often than not, you will win the conversion. Most people are turned off by people selling to them. The best way is to show them that you're willing to help and that you always have their best interests at heart.
Listen to the show to find out more about how the approach to sales has changed.
An example of a business that has embraced new ways to sell
Tom talks about a camera store called Adorama based in New York that he used as a case study in his book, The Invisible Sale. Adorama only has one store, but does business in all 50 US states and 5 countries.
Adorama has two sides to their business, B2C and B2B. Regardless of which side you look at, they approach it the same way. Their philosophy is to sell by sharing original educational content.
Even though it's a photography store, they sell more than just cameras. They've built a Learning Center that includes Adorama TV, which is one of their huge content pieces. The Learning Center is a treasure trove of educational content.
Although their approach is to educate, when you watch one of their videos, you'll notice easy-to-follow links to products below the video. You'll find out how they used YouTube to allow people to reach that product.
In 2010, they saw a general growth curve, mainly due to the educational content they provide.
The moral of the lesson is that if you can make your buyer smarter and better because they are doing business with you, then Tom believes you will succeed in selling more to that buyer.
Listen to the show to hear why Tom relates it to fly-fishing and how it's the same with modern content marketing.

by Joseph Shih @ Twinword, Inc.

Sun Sep 10 22:11:53 PDT 2017

Did you know that Google uses your past search history to give you more relevant results? Here is an experiment you can try: In a private browser session (with no cookies), go to Google.com and just start typing “food ” (with a space following). You should see some autocomplete suggestions such as […]

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Tue Mar 22 02:00:43 PDT 2016

Want to connect with local customers on Pinterest?
Wondering how to drive foot traffic with Pinterest?
Pinterest offers local businesses a way to cultivate relationships with prospects and customers who are primed to walk through your door.
In this article you'll discover how to use Pinterest to market a local business.
Listen to this article:
#1: Find Out What Likely Customers Are Interested In
Before you do anything on Pinterest, spend some time on the platform studying the people you want to reach. You likely have an idea of who your target audience is. Are they the same people you're hoping to reach on Pinterest?
Find out what your target audience is doing on Pinterest, who they follow, and what kinds of things they're pinning. Start by browsing the categories on Pinterest. Click to the right of the search box to open the drop-down category list.
Click through the categories that are most relevant to your business and check out related topics. From here, you can start to see where your content and business might fit in on Pinterest.
Try searching for related words in the Pinterest search bar. Pinterest's Guided Search will show you the most commonly searched words and phrases with your search term.
You can also click through to the most popular pinners and pins and boards from that search term. This is a great place to find your target customers, and learn what kind of content your target customers value and how they share it.
#2: Create Keyword-Friendly Boards and Profiles
Now that you've identified popular topics and keywords for your target audience, you can begin building your profile.
You've likely discovered some popular topics that are related to your industry. Use the interest topics you've identified for your boards. For example, if you're a hair salon, "Hair styles DIY," "Curly hair tips," and "Prom styles" might be good boards for your business.
Your Pinterest profile is a perfect place to embed your keywords. This will help you get discovered on Pinterest and also on Google. Add keywords to your profile name, profile description, board titles, and board descriptions.
#3: Fill Your Boards With Informative Content
People come to Pinterest looking for things to learn and to buy. Now that you know what your audience finds interesting, consider what informative content you can share on your boards. This is the type of content that will get more repins and help you reach more people.
Create some boards that are related to your local community. For example, if you're a restaurant, create a board to share events that are taking place in your area.
If you're a vet, you could share educational content related to health and care for animals, popular pet products, and favorite places to take pets in the surrounding area.
Informative content will help you extend your reach. In addition to curating that content from others, you should also create your own content. Think about what customers need to know in order to value the service you provide. What kind of customer education is needed in your industry?
Create simple graphics to explain a point or a new regulation. Even for non-designers, it's easy to create informative and engaging infographics with online tools. You might also write an explainer article or create a video to show how something gets done.
Share your content on Pinterest as a vertical pin. Pins perform best at 600 x 1200 (or more) pixels. Remember to write an information-rich caption to get more engagement.
#4: Drive Foot Traffic and Click-throughs With Rich Pins
Pinterest rich pins allow you to embed information from your website that is updated dynamically to encourage customer conversions. Here are some rich pins that might be helpful for your local business:
Use article pins if you have a blog or create blog content. When you create article pins, the headline, author, and story description will automatically be pul...

by @ Social Media Marketing Podcast helps your business thrive with social media

Fri Aug 28 03:00:36 PDT 2015

Do you want to bring more attention to your business or product?
Want to find out what inspires people to take notice?
To discover how to get people's attention online, I interview Ben Parr.
More About This Show
The Social Media Marketing podcast is an on-demand talk radio show from Social Media Examiner. It's designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.
In this episode I interview Ben Parr, the former co-editor for Mashable. He's also the co-founder of DominateFund—invest in great companies. His new book is called Captivology: The Science of Capturing People's Attention.
Ben will explore the science of getting attention.
You'll discover the different types of attention, as well as some of the triggers.
Share your feedback, read the show notes and get the links mentioned in this episode below.
Listen Now
You can also subscribe via iTunes, RSS, or Stitcher. How to subscribe on iPhone.
Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show:
Getting Attention
Ben's backstory
Ben talks about how his personal blog led to writing for Mashable in 2008. Some of the stories on Ben's blog hit Digg, which was big at the time. Mashable noticed and asked Ben to write for them. He then came on board as a junior editor, and was promoted to co-editor in 2009, which was when he moved to San Francisco. Ben was with Mashable for 3 1/2 years.
As co-editor, Ben was in charge of the West Coast. Since he was the only one in Silicon Valley for a long time, if anything came up in Silicon Valley (like they needed someone to talk to Mark Zuckerberg), they called on Ben. He wrote about 2,400 articles and also helped manage and mentor a lot of reporters and junior editors.
Ben's book, Captivology, came about a couple of years ago. When Ben was just starting out investing in companies, he realized they were all asking for help with press and marketing, customer and user acquisition, and virality. He explains that all of these areas are about getting attention for products and getting users.
Ben says he did a lot of research, and realized there was a lot of interesting information about attention over the last 50 years, but no one had put it together into something mainstream.
Listen to the show to discover why Captivology was the book he had to write.
The science behind the book
For Captivology, Ben went through more than 1,000 different research studies and interviewed dozens of PhDs, as well as business leaders and thought leaders, like Sheryl Sandberg, Steven Soderbergh and David Copperfield. They helped him frame the book in a way that there's a lot of science and research, but also practical information. There's knowledge people can use in daily life.
Going into the book, Ben had theories about things like reward systems, and confirmed some of his beliefs on how they work.
For example, there's a type of reward-giving, called post-action rewards. This is when someone gets a reward as a surprise after completing an action. When you surprise people with a reward, it reinforces behavior.
Listen to the show to discover why incentives are the worst ways to get attention.
The three types of attention
In Ben's research, he discovered three stages of attention: immediate, short and long attention.
Immediate attention. This is the immediate and automatic reaction people have to certain sights, sounds and stimuli. When people hear a gunshot they duck, which is an automatic reaction to protect themselves. There's a lot of fascinating science on how that works and why it matters, Ben says.
Short attention. Short attention is the second stage. That's when people start consciously focusing on something. When someone starts watching a show or reading a story about something, that's short attention.
Long attention. A lot of people don't think about the third stage, which is long attention (long-term interest in a subject).

by @ Social Media Marketing Podcast helps your business thrive with social media

Fri Sep 01 03:00:08 PDT 2017

Want to make money from your content?
Wondering how a loyal audience can create business opportunities?
To explore business models that help publishers generate revenue, I interview Joe Pulizzi.
More About This Show
The Social Media Marketing podcast is an on-demand talk radio show from Social Media Examiner. It's designed to help busy marketers, business owners, and creators discover what works with social media marketing.
In this episode, I interview Joe Pulizzi, founder of the Content Marketing Institute and Content Marketing World. He's written five books including Epic Content Marketing and Content Inc. His newest book is called Killing Marketing: How Innovative Businesses Are Turning Marketing Cost Into Profit.
Joe explains how high-quality content can transform marketing from a cost center into a profit center.
You'll discover the different ways you can monetize your content.
Share your feedback, read the show notes, and get the links mentioned in this episode below.
Listen Now
Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show:
How to Generate Revenue With Your Content
Why Joe Wrote Killing Marketing
Joe and co-author Robert Rose work mostly with large businesses. They've been seeing a trend where businesses are viewing marketing as a profit center rather than a cost center.
Only a few companies are currently doing things this way. However, Joe believes that over the next 5 or 10 years, marketing as a profit center will be the rule, not the exception. The premise of the book (and the philosophy) is to create trusted relationships with your audience and monetize that relationship by doing more than selling products. You can monetize your business in 10 different ways.
Joe says the biggest mistake people make with their marketing is they set up their marketing department wrong. They seek opportunities for the sales team and don't see all of the potential in what their companies can be and sell.
Any business that has lasted 10 or 15 years has evolved over time. Yes, selling products is important but you can't lead product-first anymore. The only competitive advantage people have today is communication. Everything else can be duplicated.
Marketers need to be refocusing on making markets and creating opportunities for organizations; however, many have lost sight of those objectives. When the focus is on people, not necessarily products, companies can sell all kinds of things they never thought about before.
Listen to the show to discover how marketers typically view marketing.
Companies Embracing This Premise
BabyCenter.com, owned by Johnson & Johnson, is one of the largest sites dedicated to mothers. Eight out of 10 mothers use the site, which is a stellar resource for research and development. Johnson & Johnson monetizes the site directly and launches new products from it.
Red Bull Media House is judged as a profit center and media company. Although they're the marketing arm of Red Bull (and want to sell more product), their revenue comes from advertising and content syndication. They package and sell their videos to companies like The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. They also sell subscriptions (The Red Bulletin Magazine has two million subscribers).
One of Joe's favorite examples is Arrow Electronics, which is the 118th company on the Fortune 500 list. They're like the Amazon.com for electronics equipment and they target electrical engineers. Two years ago, they went to Hearst and UBM (Content Marketing Institute's parent company) and bought 51 media properties, including EE Product News.
Now, Arrow Electronics is the largest media company in the electronics industry. Although the media division is a marketing arm for the company, the media division is also extremely profitable. Plus, it helps the company sell more products and services.
In most cases, marketers simply target customers or prospects with the goal of getting t...

by @ Social Media Marketing Podcast helps your business thrive with social media

Fri May 17 03:00:27 PDT 2013

Do you use mobile marketing for business?
Are you wondering how to get started?
To learn how mobile marketing and social connect, I interview Jamie Turner for this episode of the Social Media Marketing podcast.
More About This Show
The Social Media Marketing podcast is a show from Social Media Examiner.
It's designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.
The show format is on-demand talk radio (also known as podcasting).
In this episode, I interview Jamie Turner, co-author of the book Go Mobile. His blog, the 60 Second Marketer is ranked as one of the top 10 marketing blogs by Social Media Examiner. He also runs a social media and mobile marketing agency called 60 Second Communications.
Jamie shares how to start with mobile marketing and why you should pay more attention to mobile customers.
You'll learn what tools to use and the difference between mobile websites and mobile apps.
Share your feedback, read the show notes and get the links mentioned in this episode below!
Listen Now
You can also subscribe via iTunes, RSS, or Stitcher.
Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show:
Mobile Marketing
Why marketers should pay more attention to mobile customers
Jamie states that 15-50% of the people who visit your website come in from a mobile device and this number will continue to grow.
When consumers visit your website from a mobile device, you need to be there to meet them, understand mobile marketing and know how to connect with customers on mobile.
You'll have to learn how to use mobile, as it's a way to build a bridge between you and your customer.
You'll discover how more people check prices on their mobile devices while shopping and what you need to provide them to make sure they buy from you.
And you'll hear that when people buy a product on mobile devices, particularly tablet computers, their total ticket price is typically higher than it is via a desktop computer.
It's important to be mobile-ready—not only for B2C but for B2B too.
Listen to the show to find out how many people bought a virtual ticket on a smartphone while attending Social Media Marketing World.
Is there a social media connection when it comes to mobile marketing?
Jamie sees email as a social media tool. Sixty-seven percent of all "C-level" executives check their emails from their mobile devices. The better-known tools being LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
We all need mobile websites. Remember when consumers visit your site, one of the prominent things you want to do is give them the ability to connect with you on social media platforms from their mobile device.
You'll hear Jamie give a great example of how you can use LinkedIn on a mobile device in a business environment.
Photography is easy on a smartphone. Look at how well Twitter and Facebook have integrated photos into their mobile apps. It's a great opportunity to grab customers. You'll find out how Ramon De Leon, a regional Domino's pizza guy in Chicago, evangelizes his business with the use of Twitter.
Jamie explains what mobile websites mean and the difference between a mobile website and a mobile app.
You'll discover what you need to do to make your website mobile and why the WPtouch plugin for WordPress is an awesome tool to have.
Listen to the show to find out why social is mobile.
The most common types of marketing when dealing with mobile users
Jamie lists 7 things businesses have to think about when it comes to mobile marketing.
Mobile websites
SMS
Mobile display ads/banner ads
Mobile paid search
Location-based marketing
Apps
QR codes
These are the primary tools out there. Jamie's advice is to make sure you always start with a mobile website and then move into paid search or QR codes.
You'll hear Jamie give an example of how a restaurant can use SMS to drive more foot traffic to their business.

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Tue Jun 30 02:00:44 PDT 2015

Are you tracking your social media marketing results?
Do you know where to find metrics to help you improve?
Tracking social activity helps you attract a higher-quality following, communicate more effectively and provide content that resonates with your audience.
In this article you’ll discover seven ways to track metrics and improve your social media marketing.
Listen to this article:
#1: Discover Optimal Times to Post
Use a tool like SumAll to track metrics such as what times of the day you get the most engagement and which content types work best for your social posts.
As you gather these insights, start scheduling your posts at optimal times. Make other changes as well, such as a different content type or voice, to connect with and grow your audience.
#2: Examine the Reach of a Keyword on Twitter
To track the reach of a specific keyword or hashtag on Twitter, use a tool like TweetReach. For example, if you're running a campaign with an associated hashtag, you can determine how far your hashtag traveled over a given time frame. TweetReach's free service will look at 1,500 tweets for a given keyword.
For example, below are the results for a search for the hashtag #MondayBlogs. The results show that the term had a reach of nearly 211,000 accounts.
TweetReach also shows you the most influential accounts that help spread your message and makes it easy for you to engage with them.
With the premium service, you can track a hashtag over weeks or months to see how your campaign is spreading on Twitter.
#3: Research Your Competition
If you want to know where your competitors excel and where they're falling short on social, use a tool like Rival IQ to find out.
Why is this good to know? If your competitors are tanking on Snapchat, for example, chances are you will too. Or if your competitors aren't on Snapchat, it might be worth a look to see why. Maybe they were on the platform previously and it didn't work out, or perhaps it's just a venue they haven't explored yet.
A recent blog post from Rival IQ reveals engagement rates for Shopify and their competitors, complete with detailed graphics showing where each company has a social presence and where they get the most interaction.
You may find some of the results surprising. For example, Shopify gets the most engagement on Instagram. That's probably not the first place you'd think people would go for an ecommerce solution, but Shopify is connecting well there.
#4: Identify Industry Influencers
Use a tool like BuzzSumo to identify who the influencers are in your field and what they're talking about. Then connect with those people, talk to them and make sure you're responding to them when they tweet you.
Beyond that, you can use BuzzSumo to find out which posts are getting the most action, discover relevant keywords you may have been unaware of and find new Twitter chats to participate in. You can also see who shared the best content so you can target your following habits in the hope that they'll follow you back.
Filter your results if you want to see what video is performing best or for details on infographics, for example. You can go back for a year, which is particularly useful if you have season-specific content.
All in all, BuzzSumo gives you insights on how to word your posts and whom to engage with for growth on which social platform. It's a great tool for fine-tuning how you present your content on social media. Check out how your own posts rank to make sure that you're improving over time.
#5: Determine Website Traffic Sources
With a customized landing page, you can measure many metrics, the most basic of which is just where website traffic is coming from.
Say you're spending 10 hours a week crafting Twitter posts because you're certain that your audience is there. If you then discover that your Facebook landing page is driving more traffic, you can streamline your efforts either by reducing the...

by Bill Sheikh @ Tulsa SEO | Tulsa Website Design | SEO Tulsa

Tue Mar 28 17:42:03 PDT 2017

Whether you own a small business or run a large corporation, “search engine optimization” has likely come up more than once in your marketing meetings. Unfortunately, it’s become a bit of a buzzword, which makes some businesses scared to tap into its full potential. While the strategies and successes behind SEO have shifted slightly over […]

by Guy Sheetrit @ Over The Top SEO

Tue Feb 14 12:02:17 PST 2017

Social Media And SEO Strategy Social media has changed the very landscape of the internet. Everyone involved in SEO should understand this and embrace it fully. These two go hand in hand, complementing each other. To have a successful strategy you need to master both and then blend them together in perfect harmony. Why Keyword Research Is […]

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Wed Sep 23 03:00:45 PDT 2015

Are you marketing on Periscope?
Want to reach more people?
You can develop a following on Periscope by promoting your broadcasts, engaging with viewers and repurposing your content on other channels.
In this article you'll discover how to build a Periscope audience for your business.
#1: Cross-Promote Broadcasts
While content is ultimately king, think about how you can attract enough of an audience to Periscope to drive results.
Listen to this article:
If you've already established and nurtured followers on other social channels, especially Twitter, you likely have a strong foundation to begin distributing your Periscope content and generating interest.
Think about your branding guidelines for the social channels that you plan to use in your promotion strategy. Even though you're promoting Periscope content, make sure that you optimize your promotions to match the tone and format of the different channels.
By aligning your promotion to each network, you increase the likelihood of earning social shares, receiving feedback and gathering an audience. Consider the following distribution tactics when planning your Periscope promotions.
Twitter
When promoting your live stream on Twitter, craft a brief yet compelling tweet equipped with hashtags and an attractive visual, which are some Twitter best practices.
In the tweet below Michael Hyatt included hashtags to attract people interested in Periscope streams, as well as the followers of his #VirtualMentor brand. Hashtags on Twitter can make your Periscope event (or scope) more noticeable and easily searchable on the channel.
Hyatt also used an informative and eye-catching visual to attract users' attention when they're scrolling through their Twitter feeds.
Pinterest
Pinterest is largely built on visually compelling, do-it-yourself and project-based content. Create informative content that incorporates images with a tall aspect ratio, detailed descriptions of your event and a call to action to your Periscope stream or landing page.
Instagram
When promoting your live stream on Instagram, consider adding a text overlay to your images. Content descriptions on this channel tend to be shorter (around 100 characters) and include multiple hashtags (try three to five).
In this Instagram post, Sue B. Zimmerman promotes a scope with Kim Garst.
Facebook
Visual content typically does well on Facebook, particularly video. Create a brief video preview to attract attention and tag any guests participating in your Periscope stream to reach a broader audience.
The LPGA promotes upcoming Periscope broadcasts on their Facebook page. This post previews an upcoming broadcast with golfer Morgan Pressel.
Snapchat
While Snapchat can be a tricky channel for promotions, start by creating a story to announce your Periscope stream. Since your followers won't be able to follow direct links to your content, ask them to take screenshots of your snaps that contain event details or publish snaps that reiterate the value of your Periscope stream to pique interest.
LinkedIn
Create a short LinkedIn Publisher article (between 500 and 800 words) to promote your Periscope efforts. Make sure to include an eye-catching visual and a call to action. You can share this content on your personal account or company profile, through LinkedIn groups or by direct messaging connections who are likely to be interested in your content.
Hootsuite CEO Ryan Holmes promoted an upcoming AMA on Periscope in this LinkedIn article.
Email List and Company Blog
Okay, so your email list and blog aren't necessarily social channels. However, using your owned media channels to generate interest can be an excellent strategy for driving visitors to your Periscope content. Alert email subscribers to your upcoming broadcasts or write a blog post summarizing recent ones. Be sure to ask your followers for feedback and the type of content that they'd ...

by Mahum Ali @ Twinword, Inc.

Thu Jul 13 01:41:56 PDT 2017

Are you new to search engine optimization and don’t know how to improve your ranking on search engines? In this article I’m going to talk about some topics that will help improve your SEO marketing and rank. You’re probably wondering why SEO marketing is important for business. It is important because it […]

by Rank Fuse @ Rank Fuse Interactive

Fri Sep 15 09:58:41 PDT 2017

We all know that the holiday season is just around the corner, and for many businesses, the holiday season is the busiest time of year. While you may understand that sales will increase during the holidays, you may need a little help maximizing your sales during this time of year. If someone were to ask […]

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Mon Jul 18 03:00:56 PDT 2016

Do you broadcast Facebook Live videos?
Wondering how to improve their performance?
Monitoring the reach and engagement of your Facebook Live broadcasts lets you see what's working and what you need to do to improve your results.
In this article, you'll discover tips to improve the reach of your Facebook Live video broadcasts.
Listen to this article:
Why Broadcast Live?
Facebook Live lets you create a stronger, more personal relationship with your audience.
While Facebook gives priority to video in the news feed, Live video ranks even higher. According to Facebook, people spend triple the amount of time watching a video when it's live, because of the nature of live content: it's exciting, in-the-moment, and the next best thing to being there.
Furthermore, two-thirds of Facebook Live video views happen after the fact. This, combined with the new engagement graph where viewers can skip to the parts of the video that get the most engagement, means marketers have more reason than ever to step up their game and offer good, consistent, engaging Facebook Live videos.
Measuring Impact
To get the most out of your Facebook Live videos, you need to know what works. Here's how to find your video data, understand it, and improve on your video metrics.
View Live Video Summary Data
To view your video stats, go to your Facebook business page and click on Insights at the top. Then in the left navigation, select Videos.
On the right, you'll see charts with your video views. If you want to change the date range, enter the dates in the Start and End boxes.
You can also choose from three options to filter your stats: Organic vs. Paid, Auto-Played vs. Clicked-to-Play, or Unique vs. Repeat. For both total views and 10-second views, you can benchmark to compare your average performance over time in each of these three areas.
Below total video views, you'll see a chart with your 10-second video views. A video view in the news feed is just 3 seconds (whether the video is auto-played or clicked-to-play). However, Facebook shows page admins stats for views of 10 seconds or more.
Hover and then click anywhere on the charts to see additional details.
Overview metrics are helpful to see which days are good for your video posts, as well as to compare which types of actions led to video views.
Look at Insights for Individual Videos
To get specific stats for a video, page down on the same Insights page. They'll be listed by most popular video.
Click Video Library to see stats in reverse chronological order. (You can also get to your Video Library section by clicking on Publishing Tools at the top of your page.) Note that you can use filters that are Basic (Title, Description, Views, Date Created, or Video Tags) or Advanced (Distribution, Embedding, Social Actions, or Live). To see all of your Facebook Live videos, go to Advanced > Live > Recorded Live.
Select the video you want to review, and go through the stats for Video Views and Post Views.
A quick and easy way to review stats for each video is simply to go to the video on your wall and click on the reach number. A Post Details report card pops up with two tabs: Video and Post.
Video Views Tab
The Video Views tab tells you Peak Live Viewers, Minutes Viewed, Unique Viewers, Video Views, 10-Second Views, and Average % Completion. Remember, a video must be watched for at least three seconds to be recorded as a view.
Select any of this data for more information. For instance, Peak Live Viewers will tell you at what point in the broadcast you got the largest audience.
Ten-second views shows how many people have watched 10 seconds or more of your video on any given day. The stat is divided by people who watch with the sound on versus the sound off.
While you obviously want a high completion rate, a low completion rate is actually normal, even on short videos.
If you get a high completion rate (even 25% is hi...

by Victorino Q. Abrugar @ Optixor

Tue Jun 16 23:15:33 PDT 2015

SEO in the Philippines: 5 Good Reasons to Hire Filipino SEOs Asian countries like India, China, Malaysia and the Philippines are among the top destinations in the world for outsourcing business processes, such as content marketing, social media marketing and search engine optimization (SEO). As SEO is an important marketing campaign to promote a business, […]

Optimizing a page for mobile speed? Not easy. Mobile search has come a very long way, especially since the Google Mobile Friendly Update, back in 2014. Mobile optimization keeps evolving, and it happens fast. At first, we had separate mobile versions, then responsive designs, now we have Google AMP pushing strong. What AMP (accelerated mobile […]

by Robert King @ Web Hosting Blog from eUKhost

Mon Aug 28 23:26:44 PDT 2017

Voice search is taking over how we use the internet. With applications like Google Assistant, Siri and Cortana and devices such as Alexa and Google Home, voice search has become easier, more accessible and more accurate. According to Branded 3, 40% of adults currently use voice search at least once a day and it is …

by @ Social Media Marketing Podcast helps your business thrive with social media

Fri Oct 03 03:00:21 PDT 2014

Do you post videos on YouTube?
Are you looking for ways to increase your traffic and subscribers?
To explore how to grow your YouTube audience, I interview Steve Dotto for this episode of the Social Media Marketing podcast.
More About This Show
The Social Media Marketing podcast is a show from Social Media Examiner.
It's designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.
The show format is on-demand talk radio (also known as podcasting).
In this episode, I interview Steve Dotto, who produces Dotto Tech, a YouTube show designed to help you "discover your inner geek," by focusing on productivity, apps and more. In his former life, Steve hosted Canada's largest syndicated technology show of the same name where he entertained and informed millions of Canadians on all things tech. Steve's also been involved with theater and comedy at Second City.
Steve shares how he transitioned from hosting a tech TV show to a popular YouTube channel.
You'll discover how to grow your YouTube channel.
Share your feedback, read the show notes and get the links mentioned in this episode below!
Listen Now
You can also subscribe via iTunes, RSS, or Stitcher.
Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show:
YouTube Growth
How Steve transitioned from television to new media
For 15 years, Steve had a popular TV series in Canada that focused on tech. According to Steve, toward the end of the run, the Internet was becoming more relevant and the show was becoming less relevant. So about four years ago, he pulled the plug on the TV show and then took some time to figure out his next step.
He started to teach, dabbled on YouTube and did a radio show. Then at a conference two years ago in Victoria, he met Mari Smith, who introduced him to the world of Internet marketing and showed him how to build a community.
Steve took her advice and added his own approach. About a year ago, he really started focusing on YouTube.
Listen to the show to hear how last year's YouTube/Google+ changes were key for community development.
Steve's show format
Steve's how-to series shows his viewers how to use tech tools—from Google functions to iPhone apps—more effectively. Steve says if you watch an episode and say, "I didn't know I could do that," "I'd like to do that" or "I should be doing that," then he's done his job.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePVkSfKeEfI
Most of Steve's videos are between 5 and 12 minutes long, which is a little long by conventional YouTube wisdom. His goal is to take on a topic and teach his viewers something they probably didn't know. Bottom line, he explains, is edutainment value.
Listen to the show to hear an example of something Steve teaches during an episode.
Why you should start a YouTube show
Steve feels that for many different topics it's easier to convey a concept with inflection through video than on other platforms.
It's also a relaxing environment to browse through and discover information. Steve says most people will binge-watch YouTube. They'll watch several videos in a row on the same topic to learn something.
A video is easier to follow than a blog, it's more engaging than a podcast and you can bring all of the media types together, Steve believes.
Listen to the show to discover how Steve feels about writing.
What tech Steve uses for his show and why
Steve sets his broadcasts up as screencasts, but uses an app so viewers can also see his face as he explains the tech.
The why: Content creates a connection between the presenter and viewer. Whether it's a blog, podcast or YouTube video, there is an intimate relationship between you, the speaker, and the audience. With the vastness of the Internet, Steve believes we often lose that personal engagement that happens when someone consumes our content. So we need to make every effort to develop that relationship.

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Mon Jan 18 03:00:19 PST 2016

Do you want more visibility from your Pinterest marketing?
Are you looking for ways to get your pins and boards seen by more people?
There are some quick and easy tactics you can use to help more of the right people find and share your content on Pinterest.
In this article you'll discover how to increase the visibility of your content on Pinterest.
Listen to this article:
#1: Understand Who Uses Pinterest
It's important to approach each social media platform as a unique entity. Although many networks have similarities, Facebook is different from Twitter, Pinterest is different from Instagram, and so on. One big difference among social platforms is your audience.
Here's a look at Pinterest's overall demographics:
Pinterest has 100 million daily active users, with over 500 billion Pinterest pins.
80% of Pinterest's users are female and 90% of all pins are created or shared by women.
13% of adult men who are online use Pinterest, with a 120% growth in male users in 2015.
Millennials are using Pinterest as much as Instagram.
67% of Pinterest users are under the age of 40.
60% of Pinterest users are from the U.S.
If you have a business account, you can get a picture of your unique audience demographics with Pinterest analytics. You can see whom you're connecting (and not connecting) with. To access Pinterest analytics, click the Analytics tab in the top-left corner of the screen and select Audience.
View the Demographics tab to see pertinent information about your audience, including where people are from, their gender and the languages they speak.
Once you have a good understanding of who your Pinterest audience is, you'll be able to create relevant content for them.
#2: Appeal to Users Preferences
It's important to find out what your specific audience's interests are so you can better tailor your content to them. Check out your Pinterest analytics to see your best-performing pins and boards and discover their other interests.
Identify Top Content
Choose Analytics > Profile to view engagement metrics for your Pinterest content. You'll see your top pins and boards from the past 30 days and how many impressions, clicks, repins, likes and either pin type or numbers of pins on the board.
This data provides insights into which pins and boards are resonating with your Pinterest audience.
Look at Audience Interests
You can also review your analytics to see insights about the interests of your Pinterest audience.
Choose Analytics > Audience and click the Interests tab to see images and labels describing common interests your audience members share. Some interests are generic, like Quotes, and others are more specific, like Casual Outfits.
Try to find ways to incorporate your audience's other interests into your content. For example, if you run a cooking website but notice that a large percentage of your audience is also interested in camping, you can create pins like "10 Best Recipes to Make While Camping" or "Snacks for the Campfire."
The more you adapt your content to appeal to your target audience on Pinterest, the better you'll be able to connect with them.
#3: Write Search-Friendly Descriptions
Though Pinterest users will often scroll through their main feed or the feeds of selected topics (such Women's Fashion, Cars and Motorcycles or Geek), they'll also frequently use Pinterest as a search engine to find content they're interested in. Because of this, it's important to add relevant tags and keywords to your pins.
Strategically place keywords in the descriptions of your pins and in your boards to help users find your content when they're searching or browsing through feeds of a related category.
For example, if your keyword is "campfire recipes," make sure you highlight it in your board description.
Though not as prevalent as on Instagram and Twitter, hashtags make a frequent appearance on Pinterest.

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Tue May 17 02:00:24 PDT 2016

Looking for ways to connect with fans on a deeper level?
Have you thought about using psychology in your marketing?
Implementing basic psychological marketing principles in your social media activities can help you attract, engage, and form emotional bonds with your target audience.
In this article, you'll discover three ways to use psychology in your social media marketing.
Listen to this article:
#1: Give Gifts to Encourage Responses
If you give people something they find valuable, they'll typically feel indebted to you. To incorporate this neuromarketing tactic in your social media marketing, you can offer a small gift like a discount, free trial, or free resource guide to your fans. Whatever you decide to offer, the goal is to answer the question: "What's in it for me?"
On their Facebook page, Spanish soccer club Real Madrid recently offered free shorts with the purchase of a kid's shirt from the team's official store. In just an hour, the post received over 16,000 reactions and 63 shares.
Although Real Madrid's massive Facebook following played a role in the success of their offer, this tactic can help drive engagement for businesses of all sizes. If you don't have the luxury of spending money on giveaways, you can drive engagement using free gifts.
Anytime Fitness offered their Facebook followers a free downloadable calendar to plan their activity in and out of the gym and track progress toward their fitness goals.
To use the reciprocity tactic on your social channels, take a closer look at your audience to better understand what they like and expect. Figure out what compels them to engage and come up with an offer that they're likely to share with friends.
Offer something that's valuable to your audience while ensuring that they give you something in return. For example, give a 5% discount or a free trial of your product to anyone who shares and comments on your post. Or host a giveaway contest in which followers with the most shares and social media engagement receive a free product.
In the tweet below, users are offered a free design course in exchange for being a beta tester and providing feedback on the course. Users can reciprocate by clicking on the link to apply. They might also want to share the good news with their Twitter followers, which is a form of engagement.
The idea behind the reciprocity tactic is to compel the action of engaging with your brand by making people feel obligated to you. While you can't offer a giveaway every day, you can always post useful, shareworthy information related to your business. For example, if you're in the fitness industry, share articles and tips about exercise and healthy eating.
#2: Use Emotional Triggers to Create Authentic Connections
Connecting with your audience is one of the most basic ways to increase your social media engagement. This neuromarketing tactic makes use of the emotional reaction that's triggered when people feel connected to you. When people feel close to you and can relate to you, there's a great chance they'll engage with your company.
To form an emotional connection, you need to start interacting with followers in a meaningful way.
Laughter is one of the most effective tools for forming a strong emotional bond with people. Like Chipotle does here, you can use wit and humor to connect with your Twitter followers. The Mexican grill has a deep understanding of their target audience and the kind of humor they'll likely appreciate. This helps them avoid using humor that their followers might find offensive or lame.
Chipotle also posts humorous replies to tweets from their fans. Your tweets can show enthusiasm toward your products with the right mix of humor. This works well for driving social media engagement.
Here's how you can pull off this neuromarketing tactic to connect with your fans:
Study your audience to see what kind of humor they like.

There are few things more frustrating for a visitor to your landing page than to discover the page load speed is slow. Internet users are not the most patient bunch of people and are likely to click away or close the browser if the page does not load...

by @ Social Media Marketing Podcast helps your business thrive with social media

Fri Dec 02 03:00:19 PST 2016

Do you want to use YouTube for business?
Want to learn how to script and produce YouTube videos for your business?
To find out how marketers can develop a business channel on YouTube, I interview Sunny Lenarduzzi.
More About This Show
The Social Media Marketing podcast is an on-demand talk radio show from Social Media Examiner. It's designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.
In this episode, I interview Sunny Lenarduzzi, a video marketing expert. Previously she was a TV news reporter and the host of the Social Update from Hootsuite. Now she produces regular videos focused on social media, creates online courses, and helps her clients find success with YouTube.
Sunny Lenarduzzi shares insights from creating her own business on YouTube.
You'll discover how to use social media to drive traffic to your YouTube channel.
Share your feedback, read the show notes, and get the links mentioned in this episode below.
Listen Now
You can also subscribe via iTunes, RSS, or Stitcher.
Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show:
How to Grow a Business With YouTube
Sunny's Story
Sunny has a background in traditional media (broadcasting, television, and radio), but fell in love with social media in the early days of Facebook and Twitter.
She started an online magazine and after building the brand organically using YouTube and other social media platforms, she ended up with a social media consulting business.
When Sunny noticed she was routinely getting the same questions from her clients (such as how to build a Twitter following or how to use Instagram video), she started using YouTube FAQ to record and send the answers to clients. Her first video tutorial now has almost 80,000 views.
Today, her channel (started in March 2015) has amassed over 60,000 subscribers and 3.8 million video views.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9D7qmseGz6o
Listen to the show to learn more about how Sunny came to partner with Hootsuite on the Social Update.
The Path Between YouTube Videos and Business
It's all the about email addresses. The biggest thing to remember, Sunny says, is that YouTube is a social media platform. She reminds listeners that social media algorithms change and you can't always rely on social media reach to get your message out. That's where an email list comes in, and she notes that YouTube is vital to growing your email list.
For example, Sunny created a tutorial on How to Get More Views on YouTube, in which she offers a free YouTube SEO checklist. Every week, she gains about 200 email subscribers from that one video.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LokwDpM1wnc
Sunny explains the importance of helping your videos rank on page one of Google and YouTube search, and shares that the first 24 hours of a video's life are vital in determining where the video will rank. For this reason, when she has a new video, she spends that first day driving people directly to the video on YouTube.
Sunny credits getting ranked on the first page of Google or YouTube search results with the growth of her business over the past year. People found her videos when they were searching for help on certain topics such as how to use Snapchat, Twitter, YouTube, etc.
Answering questions related to these topics introduces her to potentially thousands of new people a day, and capturing the email addresses of those people grows her potential customer database.
Sunny shares that she uses a customized Leadpages link, designed in the same branding as her website, to collect her leads.
Sunny says to create your freebie based on what you eventually want to sell. Make it a guide, a checklist, or an ebook.
If writing isn't your strong suit, there are other options to use for the freebie, such as audio training or short video courses. For example, Kimra Luna offers a two-day video mini-series for her Rock-It With Webinars.

The eCommerce SEO community is ignoring a huge opportunity by focusing almost exclusively on Google. Amazon has roughly three times more search volume for products, and this post tells you all about how to rank.

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Mon Aug 10 02:00:57 PDT 2015

Are you launching a crowdfunding campaign?
Want to use social media to promote it?
To reach your goals, you'll need to use social media before, during and after your campaign.
In this article you'll discover how to use social media to achieve crowdfunding success.
#1: Choose Social Channels for the Campaign
When you plan a crowdfunding campaign, focus on the social channels that will provide the most impact. To pick the right channels, consider these questions:
• On which channel do you have the most followers?
• Where do your prospects converse and share?
• What people have the greatest influence in your community?
• Which platform are you most comfortable with?
Listen to this article:
For most crowdfunding campaigns, the right channels will typically be Facebook and Twitter, because they reach the most people and encourage the most interactivity.
But also take into account where you're most active socially and on which platforms your community is talking. Instagram is becoming increasingly popular, and LinkedIn may be more appropriate if your campaign caters to a professional audience.
#2: Select a Campaign Hashtag
Create a unique hashtag for your crowdfunding campaign and use it in all of your social media posts. This allows you to organize the posts into one topic page. With all of the conversations in one place, people can easily find them and learn more about your crowdfunding campaign.
Encourage your supporters and donors to use the hashtag as well. This helps you keep track of what people are saying about your campaign and draw in new people unfamiliar with it.
Shower Strike, a crowdfunding campaign for clean water, includes the hashtag #showerstrike in their social media posts. In addition, Shower Strike supporters and followers use the hashtag in their posts, which helps drive easier discovery on social media and more brand awareness.
Choose hashtags that are unique, short and catchy. If you get enough mentions of the hashtag, you might even start trending.
#3: Leverage Community Through Facebook
Your community is the most powerful asset for meeting your crowdfunding goals. Your followers help you reach new audiences, drive donations and create social proof.
Rather than rely on only your existing Facebook network, amplify your reach by creating a Facebook page for the campaign.
Create a Facebook Page
A campaign-specific Facebook page is a central place to host the true believers in your community and post updates without diluting your existing brand or outreach.
The Gauntlet, a crowdfunding campaign by Mox Boarding House, created a Facebook page to engage a core group of advocates within their community.
Your Facebook page can be a place to deliver campaign news to advocates and backers so they can share it, comment on it and take action. You can also share content on this page (or from this page) with your existing brand page.
If you're running a crowdfunding campaign for a personal project or you want to keep your community more private, you can use a Facebook group or event instead. A Facebook page is typically better suited for larger communities.
Explore Facebook Page Insights
Every Facebook page comes with page Insights. These analytics enable you to see the performance of your page based on likes, reach, engagement (comments, shares, etc.) and demographics.
Use this data to determine what's working on your page and what you need to adjust. In addition, look at the composition of your campaign followers so that you can craft content that appeals to your demographic.
Engage With Your Audience
It's important to use a push-pull technique when creating your Facebook posts. Take the time to write engaging posts that entice your community to respond. In addition, keep pushing updates to your community. Your fans will appreciate your keeping them informed when the campaign hits important milestones,

by @ Social Media Marketing Podcast helps your business thrive with social media

Fri Jan 13 03:00:04 PST 2017

Do you interview people for your blog or podcast?
Want to discover different ways to repurpose those interviews?
To explore how he built his business through expert interviews, I interview Nathan Chan.
More About This Show
The Social Media Marketing podcast is an on-demand talk radio show from Social Media Examiner. It's designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.
In this episode, I interview Nathan Chan, the founder, CEO, and publisher of Foundr Magazine, a paid digital magazine that profiles well-known entrepreneurs. He's built a huge following of almost 1 million Instagram fans and 300,000 email subscribers.
He's also launched a new book, Foundr V1.0: Everything you need to know about starting and building a successful business, from the world's most influential entrepreneurs.
Nathan shares his interviewing process.
You'll discover how Nathan used expert interviews to build his business.
Share your feedback, read the show notes, and get the links mentioned in this episode below.
Listen Now
You can also subscribe via iTunes, RSS, or Stitcher.
Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show:
Building a Business on the Back of Interviews
The Start of Foundr
In 2013, Nathan was working in IT support at a travel company. He loved the company culture, but the work wasn't a fit. As he searched for something more fulfilling to do, he noticed that the major business magazines, of which he was a fan, were difficult for him to relate to. His life wasn't like the lives of the people on a Forbes billionaire list.
Nathan started his magazine with about $3,000 and a goal of filling the gap between major business magazine content and entrepreneurs like himself. He wanted to speak to aspiring young entrepreneurs (he was 26 years old at the time) and provide in-depth content about what it takes to build a successful business.
Nathan says that podcasts inspired this vision for his magazine, too. Podcasts were becoming increasingly popular, featured stories about relatable people, and could cover a topic in depth.
Four months into producing the magazine, Nathan and his startup magazine faced a major roadblock. A large business magazine sued Nathan's startup magazine for trademark infringement. Luckily, Nathan says, the rebranding of the magazine resulted in the name Foundr, which is a better fit.
Listen to the show to learn more about how Nathan responded to the lawsuit by improving the magazine's branding.
The Business Model
Foundr has three main sources of revenue: magazine subscriptions, the membership site, and courses. The magazine subscription is $2.99/month or $21.99/year and is available through the iTunes and Google Play stores. Across monthly and yearly subscriptions, Foundr has 20,000 monthly readers.
On the Foundr membership site, subscribers have access to premium content, an online community, and exclusive training. In addition to the main revenue sources, Foundr includes a bit of sponsorship and advertising.
Listen to the show to discover the similarities between what Nathan and I do.
Nathan's Interviewing Process
Nathan has interviewed successful entrepreneurs including Richard Branson, founder of Virgin; Steve Case, founder of AOL; Arianna Huffington, founder of Huffington Post; Gary Vaynerchuk; Barbara Corcoran; Tim Ferriss; Robert Herjavec; Jessica Livingston, founder of Y Combinator; and others.
Much of Nathan's interview preparation involves his day-to-day reading about and listening to the topics, brands, and people Foundr covers. He regularly looks at Facebook, reads what's happening in TechCrunch and Mashable, and follows podcasts to see what they're doing and whom they're interviewing. To help find guests, he looks for people who have books coming out or otherwise need press. By consuming a lot of content, Nathan is aware of what's happening in his space and how to guide the i...

The days of the nine-to-five workday grind and dull cubicle confinements are diminishing away as companies eliminate traditional work environments and give employees flexible work options and alternative work arrangements. With the increase in telecommuters along with the growth of entrepreneurs, startups and freelancers, shared workspaces are on the rise all over the U.S. By... Continue reading →

by @ Social Media Marketing Podcast helps your business thrive with social media

Fri Jul 26 03:00:35 PDT 2013

Are you using Facebook for your business?
Are you wondering how Facebook's newest features can help your business?
To learn about what these new Facebook features mean for marketers, I interview Mari Smith for this episode of the Social Media Marketing podcast.
More About This Show
The Social Media Marketing podcast is a show from Social Media Examiner.
It's designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.
The show format is on-demand talk radio (also known as podcasting).
In this episode, I interview Mari Smith, who is known as the Queen of Facebook. She's the world's leading authority on Facebook marketing and author of The New Relationship Marketing and co-author of Facebook Marketing: An Hour a Day.
Mari shares how the new Facebook features can work for your business and what you should pay attention to. You'll learn how to use the new hashtags and how to make the most of your cover image.
Share your feedback, read the show notes and get the links mentioned in this episode below!
Listen Now
You can also subscribe via iTunes, RSS, or Stitcher.
Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show:
Facebook Features for Marketers
Has Facebook rolled out a lot of changes recently in response to Twitter and Google?
Mari states that there are many reasons for these new changes, although not necessarily in response to Twitter and Google+. However, Mark Zuckerberg and his entire team do keep a very close eye on the competition.
When it comes to features that have been around for a while, Facebook tends to be late with their release simply because they are a much bigger machine. They have a lot more complexity to deal with.
With Facebook being a public company, they have to make money for their shareholders. They've made a lot of changes to their ad product and it seems like they move things around to try and get the marketers attention.
Listen to the show to find out why most of the features are there to predominantly improve the monetization aspect.
What Facebook hashtags are and why marketers should care
Mari explains that the simple definition of a hashtag is that it's a way to group conversations together, around the same topic. This makes it easy to discover and follow conversations. Just like you see on Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Google+ and LinkedIn.
If you think about TV ads 2-3 years ago, the call to action would be an invite to join the brand, where they would give out their Facebook Fanpage. Now the call to action is a hashtag.
You'll hear Mari talk about the reason behind why some TV shows have niche hashtags appear throughout their broadcast, instead of one main hashtag.
As a business owner you need to start to experiment with hashtags. Find one or two hashtags that can help you ride a wave. There's a term called newsjacking. It doesn't sound very nice but it's a very popular way to get your business in front of people who are talking about something anyway.
The great thing about Facebook's hashtags, is that they are clickable. So if you click on any, whether it's on a Post or a Comment, it opens up into what is called the Hashtag Feed. This feed displays other posts with the same hashtag.
However, recently they have introduced related searches into this feature. So not only will you see the exact verbatim hashtag but also similar ones.
As a strategic marketer, Mari highly recommends every business owner make good use of hashtags. Even if you don't have them personally, they are active for other people.
Listen to the show to find out how clickable hashtags can get you in front of new people.
Tips and creative uses for Facebook hashtags
Mari uses two generic Facebook hashtags which are #facebookmarketing and #facebooktips. You'll hear what hashtag Mari uses to separate herself away from her peers.
It's where you'll find all of her posts.

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Mon Dec 07 02:00:13 PST 2015

Is your social media audience losing interest?
Do you want to tap into your followers' emotions?
Using psychology to connect with your target audience is a powerful way to engage and motivate them to take action.
In this article you'll discover five psychology principles you can use to improve your social media marketing results.
Listen to this article:
#1: People Prefer Stories to Stats
In Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, authors Chip and Dan Heath share research that reveals we're more likely to donate when we hear the story of an individual in need rather than data about an entire impoverished area.
Even though a region's suffering has a larger impact than that of an individual, the individual's story is appealing because we have an emotional response when hearing the experiences of others, not statistics and abstract information.
To apply this principle to your social media marketing, tell a story to reach your audience emotionally.
Guinness does this well through their marketing campaigns. Rather than spout information or simply show a scene, this ad takes the viewer through a complicated situation that gradually unfolds to reveal the outcome.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rx0MRawkrj4
Ads like this one follow the "show, don't tell" principle. They lead audience members through a story they need to interpret for themselves based on the actions of the characters.
Your social media content can impress your audience and be more memorable if you share a personal experience; whether it's your own or someone else's. By creating a journey with a resolution, you can make an emotional impact on your viewers.
#2: Personal Benefits Generate Interest
Expressing how people can benefit from your product or service will help you increase engagement on social media.
Taco Bell's Twitter account socially engages its audience with its witty and interactive tweets. Most importantly, the people behind the account understand what makes people tick. Take a look at this popular tweet. Who wouldn't like a free meal?
Imagine what people are thinking as they watch the World Series. They're likely hoping someone steals a base with the promise of free breakfast from Taco Bell. This keeps the brand at the top of its audience members' minds.
Of course, you don't have to give everyone in the country a free breakfast to garner attention. There are other effective methods to let people know what you or your product can do for them. Taco Bell's strategy shows that captivating the audience begins with thinking about what they want, first and foremost.
Apple famously focused on the consumer when Steve Jobs described the iPod as "1,000 songs in your pocket." Now imagine if he had described the features instead: high storage and smooth texture. People would probably be thinking, "So what? How does this apply to me?"
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SUJNspeux8
The next time you share something about your brand on social media, explain or show why it will make a difference in people's lives.
#3: Social Proof From Peers Increases Trust
These days, reviews and testimonials on products and services are available at the click of a button.
Consider a 2008 study that involved hanging public-service messages on residents' doors, asking them to use fans instead of air conditioning. Results found that telling a group that 77% of their neighbors were using fans was more effective than mentioning residents could save $54 a month.
What our peers do, impacts our decision-making.
Crate and Barrel's website invites customers to leave reviews for products and gives them the option of uploading a picture. Pictures help other potential customers visualize how the product would look in a home setting.
There are a number of ways to create social proof; show Facebook likes and post testimonials to tell your audience about how popular your product is.

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Tue May 31 03:00:07 PDT 2016

Are you up to date with the latest Instagram changes?
Want to know what the changes mean for marketers?
In addition to a brand-new logo, Instagram has rolled out updates to its ad products, video features, and news feed algorithm.
In this article, you'll discover how the most recent Instagram changes can affect your marketing.
Listen to this article:
#1: Video Length Increased
Ready to share longer videos on Instagram? In case you haven't heard, Instagram rolled out an increased time limit for videos from 15 to 60 seconds in April. Most users should have this capability with the latest version of the app.
You can shoot video directly from the Instagram app or use your photo library. Features allow you to add filters, turn off the sound, and choose the cover photo.
With these changes, you can share more video content, especially if you like to repurpose content from other networks, such as downloading your Snapchat story video to Instagram.
#2: Videos Show Views and Viewers
Now you can find out how many people are viewing your videos on Instagram. Simply look at the view count below each of your videos.
When you click on your number of views, you'll get to see the number of likes, along with the option to follow those who liked your video.
This may give you an idea of the amount of reach you're getting versus engagement. So if you see that hundreds of people viewed a video, but only a handful liked it, you can assume that it didn't resonate well with your audience. If you have hundreds of views and hundreds of likes, however, you have a winning video.
#3: A Tap on Photo Ads Reveals the Call to Action
When someone taps once on your ad photo, it brings up your call to action. You can let users click through to your website or app, depending on what you configured when setting up your Instagram ad.
Note that this isn't the case with ad videos on Instagram. If you do a single tap on an ad video, it will turn on the sound. A second single tap will turn off the sound. Do a double tap to like the video, just as doing a double tap on an ad image will like the image.
This is something worth noting when choosing between image and video.
#4: Profile Click-throughs From Ads Include the Call to Action
If you link your Instagram profile to your Instagram ad, when someone taps on your Instagram profile, it will place your ad's call to action at the top of your profile.
Note that this only happens if users go to your profile by tapping on it above your ad. If they were to access it anywhere else, the call to action would no longer be there.
Linking is something to keep in mind when choosing your call-to-action button text. When someone taps through to your Instagram profile from your ad, you'll want to display a call to action and profile bio text that align with your campaign.
Would you want Apply Now, Book Now, Contact Us, Donate Now, Download, Learn More, Shop Now, Sign Up, or Watch More at the top of your profile? And what bio text and link would you want below that?
Keep this in mind for every Instagram ad campaign.
#5: News Feed Visibility Shifts With Algorithm
While most people are focused on the logo change, the biggest change is the rollout of the enhanced Instagram algorithm. If you take a close look at your own Instagram news feed, you may notice that it's no longer in chronological order of newest posts first. Instead, you'll see posts in the order that Instagram deems the most important to you.
It's not overall engagement or recency that wins the news feed, but rather how much Instagram thinks you care about that particular Instagram user. For example, a photo with 9 likes and no comments from three hours ago from someone you occasionally engage with is several posts ahead of a photo with 180k likes and 640 comments from an hour ago from a celebrity with a verified profile whom you rarely engage with.
As an individual,

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Tue Jun 16 02:00:38 PDT 2015

Are you using video effectively to market your business?
Want to discover the best kinds of videos to make and the best times to present them?
Different types of video should be used at different times to help your audience connect with your products and services. A new prospect has much different needs than an established customer.
In this article I’ll share seven ways to use the right type of video at the right time to increase traffic and conversions throughout the sales cycle.
Listen to this article:
#1: Increase Conversions With Product Videos
Since website visitors are anywhere from 64% to 85% more likely to buy a product after watching a video about it, create short promotional videos that show off the main benefits and features of your products and put them on your website.
For example, if you have an apparel store, instead of just posting photos, add a video of a model wearing your clothes. If you offer a service, use video to explain what problem your service solves and how it goes about doing so.
PadMapper created an animated video that explains the service well, and with a light and humorous tone.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eN8nDVGfdZM
Produce the video yourself, go with an agency or use tools such as Wideo or PowToon to create an animated video. Don't be afraid to be creative and take some risks.
Video doesn't necessarily mean setting up a shoot and filming. A lot of great videos are just repurposed product images. Just insert photos into a cool template with nice transitions and text, and add some background music or other audio.
#2: Drive Traffic With How-to Videos
How-to videos catch viewers with prime buyer intent. They have a problem they want to solve or something they want to learn. It is up to you to show them how to do it. In fact, nearly 1 in 3 Millennials say they purchased a product as a direct result of watching a tutorial or how-to video about it.
Come up with and share uses of your product. For example, explain to consumers how to tie a tie or show home cooks how to make certain recipes for your ingredient. Don't try to sell your product in this type of video, just focus on instructing your audience.
The Home Depot creates how-to videos for projects. Of course, after the video piques customers' interest, a shopping trip to get the supplies is in order.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emCG1cb0n3I
Videos appear in 52% of Google keyword searches and 82% of them are from YouTube, so remember to optimize your video with keywords for SEO. Write detailed meta descriptions about your video and add transcripts of your voiceover. Just like with written works, produce great content that inspires people to engage with your videos.
#3: Onboard Users With Product Walkthroughs
Ensure your users have a smooth, easy and fun onboarding process, and they are likely to stick with you long-term.
Before you get started, put yourself in the shoes of your first-time users. Choose the most common use cases of your product and do a screen recording. If you're on a Mac, you can easily do it in QuickTime. Windows users can download something like Screenrecorder.
BuzzSumo created a fantastic walkthrough video for new users to get acquainted with their product.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpY2mMLbnq8
Go through the use case slowly and clearly, and narrate the process. Send out the link to your onboarding video in your welcome email or direct a new user to it from the sign-up page.
Onboarding is one of the most critical parts of your relationship with your users, so make the most of it.
#4: Cut Down on Customer Service Cases With Screencasts
Just as screencasts can help onboard your users, they may also be used to reduce the number of customer service calls you receive.
Rather than use text for FAQs, create videos with answers to your customers' most common questions. It's a way to establish trust and credibility. Plus,

by Jeffrey_Smith @ SEO Design Solutions™ Blog

Sun May 14 06:55:18 PDT 2017

Often you hear about the need to prevent duplicate content within your own website as it applies to SEO, but why? This is our take on why creating uniquely distinct nodes on each page is imperative for your content to produce not only context, but rankings as opposed to tripping search engine filters. Block segment Read More

by Govind Agarwal @ SubmitedgeSEO

Thu Mar 09 02:34:08 PST 2017

Every individual owing a website desires to see their web page on top of Google’s search results. To achieve this, each person strives towards making panda and penguin happy by setting every on-page SEO element right. In return, they hope … Continue reading →

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Tue Sep 15 03:00:03 PDT 2015

Do you use LinkedIn to find prospects for your business?
Have you tried Sales Navigator?
LinkedIn's Sales Navigator helps you find and keep in touch with the right prospects at the right time.
In this article you'll discover how to get started with LinkedIn Sales Navigator.
Listen to this article:
What Is LinkedIn Sales Navigator?
When it comes to LinkedIn premium services, people often think of LinkedIn Pro with InMail messages. But LinkedIn offers many more tools targeted specifically to sales and marketing people. LinkedIn Sales Navigator is the one that most people start with.
This social selling tool makes it easy to find relevant prospects for your business. It does this by providing in-depth user details and advanced search and filtering options.
LinkedIn offers a free 30-day trial of Sales Navigator so you can test it out to see if it works for your business. When the trial ends, you can choose a professional account ($80 per month with 15 InMail messages) or a team account ($130 per month with 30 InMail messages). Note that TeamLink and full out-of-network access are available only with the team account.
Here's how to get started using Sales Navigator for your business.
#1: Start Your Free Trial
To set up an account, go to the Sales Navigator page and click the Start Your Free Trial button. You'll need to enter your credit card information to sign up for the 30-day free trial. (You won't be charged if you cancel before the trial period ends.)
Next, you're directed to the Sales Navigator site (linkedin.com/sales/), which is a different platform altogether. All of your activity takes place on this site and won't affect your normal LinkedIn account.
Before you can start using Sales Navigator, you need to configure it with your preferences. Click Continue to set preferences like what vertical, regions and job titles you want to target.
First, you have the option to save your existing LinkedIn connections as leads.
Next, you can sync Sales Navigator with Salesforce to import your accounts and contacts.
Now, you can view and save companies suggested by Sales Navigator (similar to following on Facebook or Twitter). Saving companies in your account allows you to track new leads, follow updates and receive company news so you're well-informed before your first conversation with a prospect. If you're not sure what companies to save, you can skip this page and add companies later.
Finally, you need to fill in information about what types of leads you're looking for. You can enter information about your sales territory (countries, regions and cities), industries you sell to and job functions you want to target.
#2: Find Prospects and Leads
When you're finished with your account preferences, you're ready to search for prospects and build lead lists. A great way to start is to use Lead Builder, which offers advanced search filters.
Click the Lead Builder button to the right of the search box.
You can search for job titles ("sales manager") or companies ("Microsoft"). Use the various filters to refine your search criteria.
When you're finished setting your search parameters, click Search to see the results. Sales Navigator provides much more data in its search results than you'd find with LinkedIn.com.
Next to each result, you'll find a Save as Lead button, which you can use to save relevant prospects.
At this point, you have the option to save the lead to an account. Accounts are the companies that you want to follow to stay up to date on recent developments.
In addition to saving leads, you can save the search itself. Then in the future, when new profiles match your search criteria, you'll receive email alerts. To save a search, click Save in the upper-right corner of the search results. You have the option to receive email alerts daily, weekly or monthly.
On the left side of the search results,

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Mon Jan 18 02:00:59 PST 2016

Are you on LinkedIn?
Have you reviewed your security and privacy settings recently?
While LinkedIn is valuable for building your professional presence, it's important to be conscious of your individual privacy and security when using the network.
In this article you'll discover what you need to know to manage your security on LinkedIn.
Listen to this article:
How to Access Your Privacy and Security Settings
It's essential to manage your LinkedIn privacy and security settings so your personal profile is secure, yet still visible on the network. By default, LinkedIn shares certain things you might want to keep private and keeps other things private that should be public.
If you haven't edited your settings before, here's how to access them. Hover over your profile image at the top right of the screen. Then click Manage beside Privacy & Settings.
LinkedIn has more than 40 security settings. Here are the ones that have the greatest impact on marketers.
#1: Decide Whether to Share News Mentions
LinkedIn's Mentioned in the News feature automatically finds and shares with your network news items that mention you. (LinkedIn purchased the Newsle app to curate more relevant content for members.)
The default is to share your news mentions. To change this setting, go to Privacy Controls and click Turn On/Off Your News Mention Broadcasts. In the window that appears, uncheck the Yes! Let Them Know box and click Save Changes.
Mentioned in the News is a fantastic feature for people who have a positive presence online. However, you'll want to turn this feature off if you or one of your clients is dealing with reputation management issues (for example, you're working with a client who is experiencing a personal social media crisis or getting negative press).
Remember, there is no way to manage what gets shared with the Mentioned in the News feature. Your only option is to turn news mentions on or off.
#2: Turn Off Share Profile Edits
This privacy setting has less to do with your personal security and more to do with how your contacts view you and your activity. Since you don't necessarily want to alert your network of every minor change you make to your profile, I recommend that you turn off profile edits (previously called activity broadcasts).
To do so, click Choose Whether or Not to Share Your Profile Edits. In the window that appears, uncheck the box and click Save Changes.
You can also make this change from your profile. On the right side of your profile under Notify Your Network?, select No to turn off this feature.
Turn these notifications back on for a short time when you have big news (you started a new job, signed a new client, got promoted or added something significant to your profile). Then turn them off again.
#3: Decide Who Sees Your Activity Feed
Your LinkedIn activity feed used to be your updates. Now it only refers to actions taken, such as following influencers, joining groups and so on.
Your activity feed is visible to your network by default. As with profile edits, you probably don't want your minor activities to clutter your connections' feeds, so you can make your activity feed private.
To change the setting to be more private, click Select Who Can See Your Activity Feed. In the window that appears, choose the Only You option and click Save Changes.
Remember, public updates are visible to everyone, regardless of your activity feed setting.
#4: Select What Others See on Your Profile
In most cases, you want people to know when you've viewed their LinkedIn profile. It helps keep you top of mind and increases the know-like-trust factor. However, there may be times when you want to make your profile anonymous.
For instance, if you're doing research on LinkedIn, and you don't want people to see you, make yourself completely private. Use this tactic when you check out competitors or view potential employers, employees or partners.

by @ Social Media Marketing Podcast helps your business thrive with social media

Fri Aug 18 03:00:50 PDT 2017

Want to improve the performance of your Facebook campaigns?
Wondering how to successfully test and fine-tune your Facebook ads?
To explore his process for optimizing Facebook ads, I interview Azriel Ratz.
More About This Show
The Social Media Marketing podcast is an on-demand talk radio show from Social Media Examiner. It's designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.
In this episode, I interview Azriel Ratz, author of the Facebook Pixel eBook and the Facebook Ads Mastery online course. He manages Facebook ads for clients across the globe.
Azriel explains how he researches audiences and creates ad sets.
You'll discover which metrics to consider when testing Facebook ad performance.
Share your feedback, read the show notes, and get the links mentioned in this episode below.
Listen Now
Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show:
How to Optimize Your Facebook Ads
Azriel's Story
About five years ago, Azriel started working for a friend whose business had an email list of 1,000 subscribers at the time. Azriel's job was to post on Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, and Twitter and figure out what posts worked or didn't work. When Azriel looked at the analytics and noticed that certain Facebook posts worked really well, his friend suggested scheduling posts at certain times and targeting the posts based on what was already working.
For instance, they created yes-or-no poll questions on Facebook, which attracted a lot of reach and activity. The polls asked how people felt about the day's news. They also posted these questions on the website: A basic form asked a poll question and a reader had to give their email address to respond.
With this approach, the email list grew to the tens of thousands, all without spending money on ads. Azriel's friend wanted to know what would happen if they started putting money behind these posts, so they started running serious tests on Facebook. Over the next three years, the list grew to about 150,000 email addresses and led to ecommerce sales and client work.
Two years ago, Azriel started his own business, focusing solely on optimizing Facebook ads for clients.
He discovers what audience and content work best and then uses Facebook ads to target each client's best potential audience with the best potential ads. As a result, clients get the best return on their ad spend.
Listen to the show to discover what Azriel studied in college.
The Value of Optimizing Ads
Most people think that creating Facebook ads is a very basic process. They know who they want to talk to and what they want to say. Based on that knowledge, they create an ad, choose an audience (thinking Facebook will figure it out), and let the ad run. They believe the cost is what it is, and they can't do anything about it.
However, Azriel explains, if a business talks to the same person a different way by creating slightly different ads, this change could possibly save the business money on the cost to reach that person. Over time, a savings of even one cent per click could potentially save a company hundreds of thousands of dollars, depending on the ad spend.
Listen to the show to hear my thoughts on conversion rate optimization.
Azriel's Process
Azriel's process reflects the structure for creating ads in Ads Manager. However, before you begin creating ads in Ads Manager, you can use the specifics of Azriel's process to begin thinking about how to build your ads.
Identify what business goal you want to achieve by running these ads: Do you want to get leads? Do you want people to attend your webinar? Do you want people to visit your store?
Your business goal helps you choose which type of campaign will most likely get you the right results. If you choose a page likes campaign, don't expect to get webinar subscribers. A video view campaign isn't ideal for getting purchases on your website.

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Tue Jan 19 03:00:52 PST 2016

Have you been tasked with generating more awareness, more leads and more advocates?
Need a plan to get you started?
In this article you'll discover how your business can use social media to achieve three of the most common marketing goals.
#1: Increase Brand Awareness
Perhaps your brand isn't a household name and you'd like more prospective customers to know who you are. Social media can help you get there. Here are some ways to jumpstart your brand's presence through social media:
Listen to this article:
Establish fully fleshed-out profiles on the major social networks. Create company profiles on the big four social channels: LinkedIn, Facebook, Google+ and Twitter. Make sure your company logo and bio are consistent across all of your social sites.
Decide which social network you'll spend the most time on. Depending on your market segmentation and customer research, it might make sense to spend more time on one network and less on others. For example, LinkedIn is consistently the best social outlet for B2B lead generation, and Google+ tends to attract professionals in the technology space.
Consider advertising. When you first sign onto a social network, you don't have any connections because no one knows you're there. One way to make yourself known is through advertising. Each social network has intriguing ad options (like media-rich Twitter cards and Facebook sponsored posts) that help you target the prospects who will most likely click through and get to know you.
Create a content schedule. Consistency is key in social media. Before you start posting, create a content schedule that allows you to develop your brand story one social post at a time. Give content creators access to the calendar so they know what to contribute and when.
Make connections with others. Depending on the network, start following others in your industry who have important and insightful things to say.
Obviously, you won't follow competitors, but think laterally. Bloggers, thought leaders, academics and companies in related industries might be putting out great content, and be open to socially engaging with you. And that comes with the bonus of a bigger presence for your company.
Track important key performance indicators (KPIs). Only by tracking certain metrics can you know if your social efforts are paying off. Decide which metrics you'll evaluate on a regular basis, ranging from the number of likes and shares of your material, to more telling metrics like web traffic, social media conversion rates and reach. Make sure you have the right social media management tool on hand to walk you through your stats.
Once you've set up a content calendar, perhaps done some advertising and are ready to track predefined KPIs, you'll have a solid foundation for spreading awareness of your brand.
Your audience will then get a chance to see how your products and services can change their business practices. Perhaps they'll see the light through an interesting YouTube video or a report that speaks to a particular problem and your solution for addressing it. However you make your customers' lives better, social media puts you out there and brings your solutions to your prospects' doors.
#2: Generate Leads and Engagement
Now that people are starting to know you exist, it's time to turn people into leads.
As in all content marketing, you'll want to develop social content that speaks to your audience. This is content that your followers will find informative, helpful and even exciting.
When you've improved things just a little bit for people, they'll come back to you for more of the same, and that's your chance to qualify them as leads.
Here's how to put together social content that turns followers into leads:
Create content that inspires conversation. On social media, you can't depend on passive followers to convert themselves. You need to create as many opportunities to engage people as possi...

by @ Social Media Marketing Podcast helps your business thrive with social media

Fri Jul 03 03:00:22 PDT 2015

Do you create YouTube videos?
Want to increase your audience?
To learn how to create an online community using YouTube, I interview Tim Schmoyer.
More About This Show
The Social Media Marketing podcast is an on-demand talk radio show from Social Media Examiner. It's designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.
In this episode I interview Tim Schmoyer, the author of 30 Days to a Better YouTube Channel and The Secret to Building Your YouTube Audience. His site, videocreators.com helps people spread their message via video.
Tim explores how to create a community with YouTube.
You'll discover how to make videos that will engage your viewers and keep them watching.
Share your feedback, read the show notes and get the links mentioned in this episode below.
Listen Now
You can also subscribe via iTunes, RSS, or Stitcher. How to subscribe/review on iPhone.
Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show:
YouTube Community Development
How Tim got involved with YouTube
Tim explains how one night in grad school (March 2, 2006), he was bored at home, and decided to check out YouTube. After seeing what was on there, he decided to upload his first video. It was a quick, 30-second video of him talking to the camera. He had no idea where that first experience would lead.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sbC_K0cCUI
As this was pre-Facebook, Tim says he and his girlfriend at the time made videos to show their friends and family what they were up to. They made videos of their dates, engagement and wedding, as well as when they moved, had kids and so on. Tim believes they made about 1,000 videos just sharing their story. It started as a way to communicate with family and friends. Along the way, other people started watching.
Around 2009, Tim reached out to Mark Robertson, ReelSEO, and YouTube personality Kevin Nalty, and asked them why certain things did and did not work on YouTube. When they didn't know the answers, Tim decided to figure it out himself. He said he'd report back to them what he learned.
Tim began having conversations with people who were trying to figure out the same things about YouTube and audience growth. That was the start of him turning YouTube into his business.
A while later, Tim reached out to Mark Robertson again with constructive feedback. Tim told Mark that while he had a great website about video, there was nothing being done with online video. Tim ended up taking over Mark's YouTube channel, and trained the site's viewers how to master YouTube as a platform for audience development.
After a few years, Tim started working full time for an animation studio to do audience development for their web series. A year later, after he had grown it to almost 100,000 subscribers, Tim's job was eliminated. However, they paid him full-time for six months to get his own business started.
In February 2013, Tim launched his YouTube channel, called Video Creators. By the end of six months, it was his full-time income.
Video Creators has three series on it. Every Tuesday, Tim talks about news in the online video industry. Wednesdays, he shares a YouTube tip. Then, on Thursdays he answers a question from his audience. The channel revolves around using online video as a platform to change lives.
Without spending any money on promotion, Tim has grown his YouTube channel to over 75,000 subscribers and more than four-million views. He gets tons of interaction and engagement, including about 15,000 comments a month.
Listen to the show to learn what YouTube was like in the beginning.
Common mistakes with video
The biggest mistake Tim sees people make with video is that they treat it like it's the same as television. People new to video (who don't watch YouTube) don't have another frame of reference for how to craft video content. Therefore, they make the same content they would create for television,

by @ Social Media Marketing Podcast helps your business thrive with social media

Fri Apr 10 03:00:36 PDT 2015

Do you publish content online?
Want more people to share your content?
To learn how to get more people to share your content, I interview Mark Schaefer.
More About This Show
The Social Media Marketing podcast is an on-demand talk radio show from Social Media Examiner. It's designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.
In this episode I interview Mark Schaefer, author of The Tao of Twitter and Social Media Explained. His blog Grow was awarded #2 on our top 10 blogs of 2015.
Mark also co-hosts the Marketing Companion podcast. His latest book is called The Content Code: Six Essential Strategies for Igniting Your Content, Your Marketing, and Your Business.
In this episode Mark will explore why people share via social media.
You'll discover what you can do to improve your chances that people will share your content.
Share your feedback, read the show notes and get the links mentioned in this episode below.
Listen Now
You can also subscribe via iTunes, RSS, or Stitcher. How to subscribe/review on iPhone.
Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show:
Social Sharing
How Mark got into content and blogging
Around 2008, Mark started his own business doing consulting and teaching. He realized if he was going to talk about Twitter, blogging and Facebook, he had to use them. So he started a blog as an experiment. It took him about 9 months to find his voice, Mark recalls. It dawned on him that all of his contacts and business were coming through his blog, so he needed to pay attention to it. The blog really started kicking in around 2010, and has been building ever since.
The turning point happened when Mark started to write posts that were more authentic and had personality. Instead of finding his audience, Mark's audience found him. Mark tells new bloggers "To stand out, you need to be original. And to be original, you need to have the courage to tell your own story and have your own voice."
In 2009 Mark wrote a post that was a little bit controversial, called The Social Media Country Club. As a new blogger, Mark felt like an outsider. He says it seemed like all of the influential bloggers were in this club, where they never said anything negative about each other. Mark was thinking, "How are we going to grow if we don't challenge each other?" Coming from 27 years of marketing experience, Mark expected any channel used for business to be measurable, while others felt it was all about the conversation. Though nervous, Mark started speaking his mind. The reaction was supportive and positive. His audience was grateful somebody finally said it.
Listen to the show to discover what Mark blogged about at first and how he felt about it.
Why marketing with content is so difficult today
Whether you're an individual blogger, working in a business or working for a brand, many niches are getting crowded with content and social media activity. This makes it very difficult to compete.
Mark feels this was predictable. He says when the Internet first started, everyone needed a website. If you were the first one with a website, you had an advantage. Then you needed to be found. If you were the first one to figure out search engine optimization, you had an advantage, because you're going to be at the top of the search rankings. However, after your competitors figured it out, it got harder and more expensive to be in marketing.
He says it's the same thing with blogging. It's hard to be seen, because people are figuring it out. People are trying to stand out, but creating more or better content isn't necessarily the answer.
For the last year, Mark has been obsessed with figuring out how to maneuver in this very crowded world. And that's why he wrote The Content Code.
Listen to the show to hear my Times Square analogy.
Mark's code for success
Mark explains how all conversations are about content: creating more,

by Joseph Shih @ Twinword, Inc.

Mon Jul 24 18:30:23 PDT 2017

Google’s aim is to deliver to its users the most relevant content with the highest quality. Some indicators of quality are the website’s backlink profile, domain authority, and not being spammy. As for indicators of relevance, ever since the Panda Update of Google’s search algorithm, Google has been shifting their approach of detecting relevance […]

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Wed Apr 13 03:00:18 PDT 2016

Do you need better results from your Twitter marketing?
Want to use Twitter Analytics to guide your efforts?
The data in Twitter Analytics reports can help you identify the content that resonates with your audience, so you can build a more active following.
In this article you'll discover four ways to use Twitter Analytics reports to boost replies, retweets, and other engagement metrics.
Listen to this article:
#1: Tailor Your Content to Audience Interests
Tweeting content that appeals to your audience's interests can draw people to your feed and encourage them to click and share your content.
To get to know your audience, go to your Twitter Analytics and click the Audiences tab at the top of the page. By default, you'll see charts tracking follower growth and demographics. There are five tabs that you can click to see data about your audience, such as what devices and wireless carriers they use.
The Interests bar graph, which is available on the Overview and Lifestyle tabs, ranks popular topics and indicates what percentage of your audience is interested in those topics.
You can find out the interests of users who took part in your campaigns, viewed or interacted with your tweets, and converted on your website. You can also see this data for different personas, such as parents, Millennials, and users with annual incomes greater than $100,000.
Once you understand more about your audience's interests, you can create and curate content that will appeal to them. For example, suppose you're a digital marketer for a social analytics company. When you look at your Twitter analytics, you discover your audience has an affinity for cars. With this information, you create content that breaks down the social profiles of different car brands to identify the best industry practices.
You'll also want to retweet influencers, share articles from niche publications, and develop multimedia posts that relate to topics your audience enjoys. Regularly tweeting content your audience is interested in will not only boost engagement, but also help you grab your followers' attention when they're scrolling the news feed.
#2: Schedule Tweets Based on Your Audience's Location
You can increase clicks, retweets, and comments if you schedule your posts when your target audiences are online and most active.
To find out the best times to tweet, click the Demographics tab in the Audiences section of your Twitter analytics. The Demographics report gives you a snapshot of your audience's gender, location, net worth, and more. You'll want to focus on your followers' Country and Region stats. You can also examine this data for audiences you want to pursue.
Have you ever earned higher-than-normal engagement by tweeting in the early morning or late at night? Your location data may reveal you were tweeting during a foreign audience's peak hours. Using this information, you can adjust your schedule to better reach those followers and prospects based on a time zone.
For example, suppose the chart below shows the countries where your followers live. You can see a significant portion of them (18%) live in Egypt, so you may decide to post more often during the country's workday and in the evenings to better connect with that audience.
Experiment with sharing relevant news from a particular region and articles from a region's influencers. If one of your content pieces starts earning a high number of clicks and shares, schedule it throughout the day to reach users in other countries.
Scheduling content based on user location can help you increase engagement numbers and potentially connect with an audience you never knew about.
#3: Tweet Around Events
Share content that relates to holidays, conferences, and anticipated trends to add variety to your Twitter feed. Click the Events tab at the top of your analytics dashboard to see an expanding list of events.
The sheer volume of events on Twitter may seem ...

by @ Social Media Marketing Podcast helps your business thrive with social media

Fri Feb 05 03:00:45 PST 2016

Have you tried the updated LinkedIn mobile app?
Are you actively using LinkedIn to engage with your network?
To discover how to use the LinkedIn mobile app for marketing on the go, I interview Viveka von Rosen.
More About This Show
The Social Media Marketing podcast is an on-demand talk radio show from Social Media Examiner. It's designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.
In this episode I interview Viveka von Rosen, the world's leading LinkedIn marketing expert. She authored the book LinkedIn Marketing: An Hour a Day and is the founder of Linked Into Business, a LinkedIn marketing consultancy. She moderates the Twitter chat #LinkedInChat Tuesdays at 5pm Pacific.
Viveka will explore the latest mobile apps from LinkedIn and what they mean for marketers.
You'll discover how to navigate the updated LinkedIn mobile app.
Share your feedback, read the show notes and get the links mentioned in this episode below.
Listen Now
You can also subscribe via iTunes, RSS, or Stitcher.
Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show:
LinkedIn Mobile
LinkedIn's mobile apps
Viveka shares that the newest LinkedIn app, the LinkedIn Mobile App is actually an update of the earlier app, but that there are a lot of other apps within LinkedIn people might not know about, such as the Job Search app.
There are also the apps that came with companies purchased by LinkedIn, such as SlideShare and Connected, a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool. (Note: After this recording, LinkedIn announced they were retiring the Connected App on March 21, 2016.)
In addition, there are tools like the Recruiter app, Sales Navigator, Lookup and Elevate which are associated with LinkedIn's premium accounts. Then there's LinkedIn's news reader, Pulse, and the new Groups app.
Although all of LinkedIn apps are available to iOS users, only some are available on Android, and Viveka reminds listeners that not all of the apps are free. For example, Elevate is a combination CRM, content management, content curation tool priced for medium to large companies.
Viveka shares a free alternative to Elevate called LinkedIn Lookup, and discusses the differences between the Connected app and Lookup.
Viveka talks about the new Groups app and shares ways users can take advantage of features like the Highlights tab and the @ tag function.
Listen to the show to hear Viveka discuss how and why LinkedIn is focusing on mobile.
Thoughts on the improved LinkedIn mobile app
Viveka feels the updated LinkedIn app is significantly easier to use than the old version, which means people will use it to stay in contact with their network more often. She says users she's spoken to seem to like the update.
She says there are still some minor limitations with the app, but LinkedIn appears to be on top of it. For example, early on you couldn't customize an invitation to connect on the mobile app, but LinkedIn has fixed that.
Viveka goes on to discuss a current issue which affects the visibility of contact info for 1st level connections and why she thinks this is leading to a change to the Connected app.
She also says that image updates have vastly improved. In the old app you had to send a picture to Evernote or Dropbox before you could share it on LinkedIn, and now you take a picture on your phone and post it immediately.
Listen to the show to hear Viveka's thoughts about hashtags on LinkedIn.
Navigating the app
Viveka takes us through the navigation of the updated LinkedIn mobile app and starts with the Home button which takes you to a page that is similar to your home page on LinkedIn. She explains it's where you see and share updates, and she the algorithm on her mobile seems to be smarter than the desktop version.
There are two pages behind the Me button, Viveka continues. The first page contains notifications about people's interaction...

by @ Social Media Marketing Podcast helps your business thrive with social media

Fri Mar 18 03:00:40 PDT 2016

Do you broadcast on Periscope?
Want to use it to connect with and grow your audience?
To discover how to use Periscope for your business, I interview Kim Garst.
More About This Show
The Social Media Marketing podcast is an on-demand talk radio show from Social Media Examiner. It's designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.
In this episode I interview Kim Garst, author of Will the Real You Please Stand Up: Show Up, Be Authentic, and Prosper in Social Media. Her agency Boom! Social helps businesses understand the selling side of social media. Kim is also VERY active on Periscope.
Kim will explore Periscope, the live video platform from Twitter, and how your business can benefit from it.
You'll discover tools for analytics and saving your scopes.
Share your feedback, read the show notes and get the links mentioned in this episode below.
Listen Now
You can also subscribe via iTunes, RSS, or Stitcher.
Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show:
Periscope: How Your Business Can Benefit From Live Video
Kim's journey to live video
Kim says that as everyone was coming off of South by Southwest last year, all the talk was about Meerkat. The conversation suddenly changed while Kim was at Social Media Marketing World last March when Periscope was launched.
She remembers thinking that since Periscope was from Twitter, she should check it out. So, while in a pedicab heading over to that night's Social Media Marketing World networking event, she did a quick scope with Donna Moritz.
Kim's second Periscope came about a month later, when she was covering an event. One of the keynotes was Ashton Kutcher and she decided to open up her phone, broadcast the keynote, and see what happened. Although Kim had very little Periscope experience and a nearly nonexistent audience on the platform, a few people tuned in and left comments.
Her third Periscope was the most eye-opening because that's when Kim realized she could use the platform for business. She had Syed Balkhi on a webinar and decided to live broadcast it to her Periscope audience by putting her phone on her computer screen and holding a mic up to the sound source.
Kim shares that with no prep, she simply opened up her phone, typed in the webinar title, and invited people to tune in. More than 200 people watched the broadcast.
Kim soon realized Periscope could be an amazing medium – not just to deliver content, but also to connect with people.
Listen to the show to hear why Kim believes live-streaming is the beginning of Web 3.0.
Periscope strategy
Kim shares that one strategy she's capitalized on is leveraging Periscope to create multiple pieces of content. She comes up with one or two blog topics for the week, writes down bullet points and research she wants to reference, and then gets on Periscope and speaks her blog content.
For example, if the topic is 10 Ways to Do X, she'll jot down the 10 ways and talk through them during the scope. When she's through, Kim sends the recording out for transcription. When the transcription comes back to her, she has a blog post. Kim then takes that same scope material and turns it into 50+ additional pieces of content.
When asked to elaborate on how she does that, Kim explains that when people talk, certain nuggets of information they share are what she refers to as "tweetable moments."
She pulls those nuggets out of her scopes and turns them into visual content, straight-up text tweets or Facebook page posts, or even a SlideShare. Kim stresses that there are tons of ways to create multiple pieces content from talking it through on Periscope.
Kim shares the benefits of speaking her blog posts and how she uses the feedback people give her inside her scopes to see if she missed anything she needs to cover in the written post.
Kim tries to keep her Periscopes short, sweet, and actionable,

by @ Social Media Marketing Podcast helps your business thrive with social media

Fri Nov 14 03:00:18 PST 2014

Do you have a mobile strategy for your business?
Are you interested in discovering what the future of mobile marketing has in store?
To learn how to market your business with mobile, I interview Tom Webster.
More About This Show
The Social Media Marketing podcast is an on-demand talk radio show from Social Media Examiner. It's designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.
In this episode, I interview Tom Webster, the Vice President of Strategy and Marketing at Edison Research. He's authored studies such as The Social Habit and Twitter Users in America. He's co-authored a new book with Tim Hayden called The Mobile Commerce Revolution: Business Success in a Wireless World.
Tom explores how mobile marketing impacts your business.
You'll discover why successfully mobile marketing goes beyond technology, how consumer behavior is already being shaped by mobile, and how to respond to the mobile commerce revolution.
Share your feedback, read the show notes and get the links mentioned in this episode below!
Listen Now
You can also subscribe via iTunes, RSS, or Stitcher.
Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show:
Mobile Marketing
Why Tom wrote his new book
Working in consumer behavior and market research, Tom has tracked human behavior for decades. He helps brands figure out why humans do what they do. His particular area of interest is to capture the opinions and study the behavior of people out of their homes and on the go.
For Tom, understanding mobile marketing goes beyond the technology. It's about being able to understand people's needs, wants, and desires while they are in transition, out and about, and away from home.
This idea was the impetus behind his new book, The Mobile Commerce Revolution: Business Success in a Wireless World
Listen to the show to learn how it's been possible for Tom's company, Edison Research, to study mobile behavior for decades.
What is the mobile commerce revolution
Every year, experts in various trades are asked if this is going to be the year of mobile when, in fact, the year of mobile has already happened. According to Tom, the mobile commerce revolution is already upon us.
You'll hear Tom describe the Starbucks mobile app as an example of how much consumer behavior has already been shaped by mobile.
There's no special technology to the Starbucks mobile app. It's nothing more than a bar code on your phone that's tied to a method of payment. Yet it's eliminated the need for a wallet and made it simpler to purchase items using something Starbucks customers already have in hand: their smartphones.
The use of this smartphone app has become such default behavior that it’s prompted customers to make a purchase at Starbucks when they otherwise might not have.
If you base your mobile strategy on the technology, then you will not make it. Mobile isn't about technology. It's about being able to understand and enable human behavior.
Listen to the show to hear what companies with successful mobile strategies are doing that others aren't.
How marketers should respond to the mobile explosion
It's easy to be lulled into thinking that big data and clickstream analytics will give you everything you need to know to develop your mobile strategy. However, the first step when you develop a successful mobile strategy is to examine human behavior.
Tom describes the mobile web as having three distinct eras. We've moved past the first two eras of optimizing for mobile and responsive design. We are now moving towards a new era of contextually relevant experiences based on a customer's unique needs and wants in the context of their specific location. Mobility enables this capability to happen.
There is a serious measurement gap between the online and the offline interactions because our focus has either been on search or on purely technology solutions.

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Tue Mar 22 03:00:45 PDT 2016

Want to advertise on Instagram?
Ready to take your Instagram ads to the next level?
Instagram has quietly rolled out some great features to help advertisers grab attention and drive traffic.
In this article you'll discover four features you can use to create Instagram ads that stand out.
Listen to this article:
#1: Drive Traffic to Your Website
Until recently, Instagram ads only supported the objectives of mobile app installs, video views, and reach/engagement. Now you can choose from two additional ad objectives: Clicks to Website and Website Conversions.
This is the first time businesses have been able to send users to their site from individual posts, rather than just through their sole profile link. This could be a game-changer in making Instagram a stronger sales tool.
You can use both of these objectives in photo, video, and carousel ads, so you'll be able to use every type of ad format for both clicks and conversions.
Viewers will see a sponsored ad with an image, a description, and a clickable call-to-action button that will take them to your site. Call-to-action buttons include the options you're already familiar with from Facebook, including Book Now, Contact Us, Shop Now, and Learn More.
To create these ads, choose either Send People to Your Website or Increase Conversions on Your Website for the objective.
Next, you can add a pixel to your campaign. If you choose Increase Conversions on Your Website for the objective, you'll be asked to choose what type of conversion to optimize for.
Now continue to create the ad as usual, and make sure that you select the appropriate call to action. The call to action is the only clickable part of the ad, so it needs to be appealing and match your offer.
#2: Stand Out With Landscape Images
Previously, the images and videos you shared on Instagram had to be cropped into a square format. While that option is still available, you can now use landscape and portrait formats as well.
These formats allow you to make your images taller or wider than the square format allows. This gives you more cropping options to ensure your images show everything you want in them. Plus, the unusual formats help your posts stand out in Instagram's feed.
When creating an Instagram ad, you choose the format of your image in the creative section. Once you upload or select your image, you'll see an option to crop it.
When you click the gray button and select Instagram, the cropping window gives you two options for cropping your image. Click Original to crop it based on the image's original format (landscape or portrait), or click Square to crop it as a square.
In the image below, you can see how different cropping options affect what users see in the feed.
Keep in mind that carousel ads are currently only available in square formats.
#3: Tell a Story With Carousel Ads
To create image carousel ads for Instagram, you need to connect your Instagram account to Facebook. This is easy to do if you haven't done it already.
Facebook carousel ads are well-known and frequently used, and they're also available for Instagram ads. Businesses typically use Facebook carousel ads to feature multiple products or benefits in one ad, in an effort to increase sales. However, one of the best uses for Instagram's carousel ads is storytelling.
Although Instagram can be used as a selling platform, businesses use it more often for engagement, building brand rapport, and increasing followers. Telling a story or narrative through multiple images can help you accomplish all of these goals.
You can create a carousel ad in the creative section of the ad setup process. As soon as you get to the creative page, you're asked how you want your ad to look. You can choose a single image, a video, or multiple images in one ad. For carousel ads, choose the Multiple images in one ad option.
Next,

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Tue Jun 14 02:00:42 PDT 2016

Do you want more people to share your content?
Looking for more reach via social shares?
By making a few adjustments to how you create, publish, and post your content, you can increase the likelihood that others will share it more often.
In this article, you'll discover six tips to help you maximize your social shares.
Listen to this article:
#1: Research Trending Topics
It pays to do your research ahead of time. Having a better understanding of what successful content looks like in your industry increases the likelihood of it being shared.
Use a tool like BuzzSumo to help identify top shared content.
You can search for top shared content pertaining to a topic or keyword, results sorted by overall shares.
Alternatively, you can search by domain to view top shared content specific to a website.
You get a comprehensive breakdown of shares per social network, which helps you decide where to focus your efforts.
PostReach is another great tool to measure content performance across each social network. Simply enter an article's URL in PostReach and run a free report.
In addition, you can also run a total share breakdown report.
For further exploration, you can view detailed Twitter share activity.
You can plot Twitter activity across a share timeline.
You can also see which users most retweeted the article and view your overall reach through sharer audience sizes.
Finally, you can zero in on specific sharers and potential influencers with a detailed inventory of sharers provided at the bottom of the report.
Keep in mind, the purpose of this research is not to duplicate existing content, but rather to identify popular topics in your niche and add something new to the conversation.
Make it your goal to go above and beyond top shared content.
#2: Make Sharing Easy for Blog Visitors
Your audience is more likely to share content when it takes minimal effort. If your website already receives regular traffic, take advantage of the potential social shares by designing your most popular content for easy sharing.
An effective approach is to implement social buttons on your website. If you operate a WordPress site, there's plenty of useful plugins for one-click sharing buttons, including Social Pug.
The way your content reads can also encourage social engagement.
Have a great tip to share in an article? Post a share button directly below your article, as demonstrated by Brian Dean of Backlinko.
You can create a unique call to action using ClickToTweet. To start, enter your desired text in the text box and click Generate New Link. Make sure it includes a link back to your post.
You can embed the code in the appropriate part of your content.
#3: Provide Context in Headlines
There's a strong chance your content is being snubbed if your headline fails to grab people. It becomes increasingly important to hook your audience with a headline, as online attention spans continue to dwindle.
Social audiences tend to favor snackable content; bite-sized pieces that quickly convey their intent. BuzzFeed articles are essentially engineered to take advantage of this trend: easily consumed and shared. They further entice the audience to read the content by addressing them individually. For example, you'll encounter dozens of instances of "you" and "your" throughout.
What else goes into a headline worth clicking? Conductor analyzed user preferences and found that users tend to gravitate towards numbers, personalization, educational resources, and questions. When shared, a well-crafted headline functions like a status update, in that it will summarize the user's opinion or awareness of a subject.
Want your best content to receive more shares across social networks? Start thinking about your headlines in a social context.
#4: Capitalize on Visual Interest
Attach images to your posts to help them stand out and benefit your ...

Here is our list of the most important local search engine ranking factors as of 2014: Local search listing are the search results you usually see right under the paid ad’s at the top of search engines like Google, Bing & Yahoo. The local search listings are crucial to a local businesses success online & […]

In today’s business landscape, everybody seems to be entirely focused on their online marketing campaigns. Improving the layout of websites and reaching out to customers in social media are just some of the objectives of most business owners. While there is a good reason to put significant time and resources into online marketing methods, you […]

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Mon Apr 04 02:00:05 PDT 2016

Are you trying to reach an on-the-go social media audience?
Are your ads optimized for mobile users?
More people are using social on their smartphones. If you want to reach them, you might need to rethink your ads.
In this article you'll discover three ways to make your social media ads mobile-friendly.
Listen to this article:
#1: Use Simple Copy and Bold Imagery
Advertising on mobile means that people will view your ads on a much smaller screen than a desktop monitor. Because of this, you need to make sure your ads are still visible and carry the same impact when viewed on mobile devices.
Ads for desktop have the screen space to contain text-heavy copy and detailed images. Mobile ads don't have that advantage, so your mobile ad creative needs to be bold, simple, and beautiful to attract your audience's attention.
Take a look at two Facebook ads for the shoe company Tieks. The desktop ad features an intricate and interesting image along with a good amount of text to drive engagement.
The image in Tieks's mobile ad is much simpler and the perspective puts the viewer right in the ad. The copy consists of a short sentence driving users to click the ad. This ad works for mobile because people can easily read and understand it on a small smartphone screen.
While these two ads look very different, they're both unmistakably from the same company. Including the same visual elements, such as Tieks's bold red flats, in each image ties them together and keeps the ads on-brand, regardless of which device they're viewed on.
When migrating desktop ads to mobile, it's important to create campaigns that are easy to understand and compelling to users. Simple copy and bold creative are the best ways to boost engagement on mobile.
#2: Create Mobile-Friendly Landing Pages
The creative in your ads isn't the only thing you need to adjust for mobile. Make sure that once people click on your ad, they're taken to a website that they can view and navigate properly on their mobile device. A website designed for desktop won't do; viewers will quickly get frustrated by the non-intuitive layout and navigate away from your site.
This mobile Twitter ad from Home Depot encourages users to apply for job openings at its stores.
Rather than direct users to the company's home page, the ad sends users to a mobile-friendly page that's specifically dedicated to careers at Home Depot. This way, users who are interested in applying for a job don't need to search through the site to complete that objective.
The ad's landing page is bright, friendly, and on-theme. It's designed to be visually appealing and easy to navigate for mobile users. These two elements mean that there's a better chance of users viewing the page and eventually doing exactly what Home Depot wants: applying for a job.
Mobile ads require landing pages that are designed with mobile in mind. To ensure that people follow through on your desired action, make sure they're driven to a web page that is relevant to your ad and is easy for them to view and navigate on their mobile device.
#3: Explore Mobile-Friendly Video Ads
When it comes to mobile advertising, video is leading the pack. According to eMarketer, U.S. mobile video ad spend jumped over 80% in 2015, and is expected to see double-digit growth through 2019. Many marketers say that video ads have helped them drive brand awareness and engagement, in addition to achieving higher click-through rates. Why? Mobile video ads are perfectly suited to mobile consumption behaviors.
There are several ways you can start including mobile video in your advertising campaigns on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. In fact, you may already have the resources on hand to craft video ads with very little money or effort.
Website Videos
Have a video on your website that introduces your product or service? Then you have a video that's ready to run as a mobile ad! In the video below,

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Tue Feb 02 02:00:39 PST 2016

Ready to host a Twitter chat?
Do you want to improve your chances of success?
Making sure you have a few basic building blocks in place will help you start your Twitter chat off with an audience that's ready to participate.
In this article you'll discover four tips to help you start a successful Twitter chat.
Listen to this article:
#1: Choose Your Time Slot With Care
If you want lots of people to show up, you need to schedule your Twitter chat at the optimal time for your audience. The more people who are available to chat, the greater your chances for engagement.
Use a tool like Followerwonk to figure out when your followers are most active, so you'll know the best time to host your chat.
After you log in, click on the Analyze tab, enter your Twitter handle and click Do It.
You'll see an hourly breakdown of when your followers are most active.
Look at the chart to discover the optimal times to host your Twitter chat and get the most engagement from your audience. There's no point in hosting a chat when the majority of your followers aren't online.
Reduce Scheduling Conflicts
In addition to knowing when your Twitter followers are most active, you'll also want to take into account the times during which other popular chats are scheduled.
To reduce scheduling conflicts, be sure to consult the Twitter chat schedule from TweetReports. This is a helpful resource which shows the times and days other popular Twitter chats are scheduled to take place. Checking this document will help you avoid scheduling your chat during the same time as another chat your audience (or you) might be interested in attending.
You might also want to review the Twitter chat schedule from Twubs. It shows you an active list of upcoming Twitter chats.
By consulting the schedules of other popular Twitter chats, you'll ensure that your chat doesn't conflict with them. That way you don't run the risk of people not attending yours. If you're just starting out, this can be very beneficial.
#2: Invite Relevant Guests and Influencers to Participate
To maximize your reach and overall engagement, make a point to invite special guests and relevant people to participate in your chat. For example, SEMrush invites special guests to their Twitter chats and sends direct tweets to influential people inviting them to participate.
You can identify influential people using Followerwonk. It allows you to find and connect with influencers in your niche, making it the perfect tool for finding relevant guests to join your Twitter chat.
To identify influencers, click the Search Bios tab.
Next, you will want to search for a keyword that is relevant to your niche or the topic of your chat. Enter your search term and select Search Twitter Profiles from the pop-up menu. If needed, click the More Options button to see more filtering options like location and minimum followers. Then click Do It.
Followerwonk shows you a list of relevant people for your topic of choice.
All you have to do is decide which people you want to target from the list, and invite them to be special guests or ask them to participate in your chat.
#3: Incorporate Eye-Catching Visuals
When you promote and run your own Twitter chat, you'll want to get as much engagement as you can. Visual content might provide the extra boost you need to connect with your audience.
There are several ways you can incorporate visuals into your Twitter chats. You can use images to promote your upcoming chats, ask questions during the chat and recap answers to all of the questions that people asked during the chat.
Here are a few tips to help you design more appealing images for your Twitter chats:
Pick an attractive color palette using a site like COLOURlovers.
Ensure there's adequate contrast between the background and text in your images. If you need help identifying contrasting colors, consult the Adobe Color Wheel.

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Wed Apr 20 02:00:37 PDT 2016

Do you want more exposure for your business on LinkedIn?
Are you using your LinkedIn company page to its full potential?
LinkedIn company pages let you provide value to your audience while giving them the chance to engage with your business, effectively establishing your credibility as a trusted resource.
In this article you'll discover seven ways a LinkedIn company page can help your business stand out on LinkedIn.
Listen to this article:
#1: Support Brand Recognition
There are two primary visuals to be aware of on your LinkedIn company page: your company logo, which should be consistent on all websites and marketing materials, and the banner image on the top of your profile, which you can customize for LinkedIn and change whenever you'd like.
The banner (or background) image is important to brand your company. Since you may have a different audience on LinkedIn from your other social networks, keep certain graphic elements that define your brand such as colors, fonts, and design, while adding visual variety.
For example, HubSpot's LinkedIn banner image has their colors, along with the words "Academy & You," to promote the #FindYourAnd hashtag campaign for their HubSpot Academy educational program.
Even though there's a place for your website link on your LinkedIn company page, I recommend that you add your URL and central phone number (if you have one) to the banner image. You don't need to include your logo, since it will be right above the image on your page. Add a call to action, tag line, or hashtag to invite some engagement from your audience.
In addition to a main primary banner image, create custom background images too. This can promote upcoming events, a new content series, a product launch, a hashtag campaign, your best clients, or new hires.
For instance, Ventiv Technology features their new CEO in their current background image.
More than anything, your visuals should be consistent and reflect your other social media and business branding.
To update your company page images, or really anything on your page profile, click Edit on the right side of your company page, then Edit Page.
#2: Promote Specialized Landing Pages
Your website URL is required for your company page, and it's likely you'll want to keep the main one most of the time.
However, if you're launching a book or promoting something, change your website URL to point to your blog or a product or event page.
Putting your website URL in the banner image gives you the freedom to change the link for your website at any time.
#3: Speak Directly to Prospects
In a lot of situations, the company description is someone's first impression of your business. Whether they're job seekers looking for more info about your company, vendors seeking strategic partnership, or potential customers and clients checking you out, you want to captivate them immediately.
Most businesses copy and paste their About section from the company website. While that's better than nothing, there's a way to step it up a notch. Write a description that directly speaks to the people who are visiting your company page, letting them know who you are and how you can benefit them.
In her description, Jeanne Bliss of CustomerBLISS tells her company's story and her background, shares the pain point of her ideal client, and then states how she can help. Plus, the image is an excellent visual representation of what she has to offer.
Speak directly to the client with a description that builds your and your business's credibility.
#4: Improve Visibility in Search
Go to the Specialties section and add your keywords. This will make your company page a little easier to find.
Your keywords are likely your specialties. Make them known, so those searching can find your company.
#5: Feature Specialties
Showcase pages are really subpages of your company page. You may want to use showcase pages if you have an annu...

by Victorino Q. Abrugar @ Optixor

Mon Dec 07 01:18:16 PST 2015

7 Reasons Why Businesses should Work with Bloggers to Promote their Brands Professional bloggers are not just writers or publishers. They’re not just blogging for their passion or merely unleashing their expressions. But Pro bloggers are also equipped with digital marketing skills, including content marketing, social media marketing and search engine optimization. They also have […]

by @ The Social Media Examiner Show

Mon Apr 11 03:00:20 PDT 2016

Want to learn more about the people who make up your Facebook custom audiences?
Have you tried Facebook's Audience Overlap?
Using Audience Overlap will let you compare your custom audiences against each other, revealing information that will help you make better decisions on where to focus ad targeting and conversion efforts.
In this article you'll discover how to use Facebook Audience Overlap to improve your Facebook marketing.
Listen to this article:
What Is Audience Overlap?
Audience Overlap is a Facebook Ads tool that allows you to compare up to five different audiences at once and see the percentage of people who overlap among those audiences. You can access Audience Overlap in the Audiences section of either the Ads Manager or Power Editor.
Within the Audiences section, you can see all of the audiences you've created from custom audiences, lookalike audiences, or saved audiences.
There are a few differences among these audiences. Custom audiences can be made up of website visitors, certain subsets of your website visitors, a list of email subscribers, or people who have done something specific with your app. Lookalike audiences are similar groups of people you create from another audience, which you use in targeting. Saved audiences are any sets of targeting you save.
One limitation to Audience Overlap is that the audiences you compare need to have at least 1,000 people in them to protect people's privacy.
How to Use Audience Overlap
Audience Overlap is easy to use. Select the check boxes of the audiences you want to compare and then choose Show Audiences Overlap from the Actions drop-down menu. Whichever audience you select first will be the "main" audience for comparison.
To change the main audience, click the arrow button in the upper-right corner of the pop-up box and select one of the other audiences.
Here are five ways to use Audience Overlap to analyze your community.
#1: Compare Website Visitors With Your Email List
It's useful to know how many of your website visitors are already email subscribers.
Compare your email subscribers audience to your total web traffic audience, as well as other audiences you've created (such as last week's traffic). This will help you know if you need to work on getting more of your email subscribers to visit your site and if you want to focus on getting more of your website traffic onto your email list.
Keep in mind that these results aren't exact. When you upload a custom audience of your email subscribers, they won't all match up because your subscribers' email addresses have to be the same login they use for Facebook. I find that somewhere between 50% and 75% of the list typically matches.
#2: See How Many Facebook Fans Visit Your Website
Do an Audience Overlap comparison to find out whether your Facebook fans are going to your website. If the overlap is low, it could mean you're not promoting your own content enough.
If the posts directing people to your website are not doing the trick, you may need to increase your ad budget so they get in front of your fans more often.
#3: Find Out Whether Lookalike Audiences Match Your Current Audience
Sometimes lookalike audiences don't perform well when you use them in ads. You can check to see how much these audiences have in common with your current audience or other saved audiences that perform well.
Remember, you don't want these audiences to have a lot of overlap or you won't be reaching anyone new. However, if they have little or nothing in common, it could be an indication of a mismatch.
#4: Analyze the Overlap of Two Audiences
Another good way to use Audience Overlap is to compare two sets of targeting to make sure there isn't too much overlap.
If you run ads for similar groups at the same time, you're essentially bidding against yourself. You may not need to use both audiences in your targeting. At the very least,

by @ Social Media Marketing Podcast helps your business thrive with social media

Fri Apr 07 03:00:26 PDT 2017

Do you broadcast live video?
Want to learn how to create an engaged following?
To discover what he's learned from broadcasting over 1,000 live streams over the last two years, I interview Alex Khan.
More About This Show
The Social Media Marketing podcast is an on-demand talk radio show from Social Media Examiner. It's designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.
In this episode, I interview Alex Khan, the founder of Attractive Media, a German social media agency that helps businesses with live video. You can find him online at alexkhan.tv.
Alex shares his formula for beginning and ending live video.
You'll discover how Alex makes his live videos look more professional.
Share your feedback, read the show notes, and get the links mentioned in this episode below.
Listen Now
You can also subscribe via iTunes, RSS, or Stitcher.
Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show:
Live Video
Alex's Story
Alex started his first website in the late 1990s, back when email open rates were incredibly high. In 2005, he became managing director of Attractive People, a social network. In that role, Alex discovered what builds trust and how people behave on social networks.
In 2012, Alex founded Germany's first mobile marketplace for fashion, which another company later acquired.
Alex continued working behind the scenes in social media until 2015, when Twitter acquired Periscope for $100 million. After a company acquired his own app, Alex says he was curious about what a $100 million app could do. In March 2015 on the first day Periscope became available, Alex downloaded it and it immediately blew him away.
Alex knew that driving engagement builds trust and increased visibility; however, creating engaging content was (and is) a challenge. Periscope helped Alex solve the engagement challenge because he could start a one-to-many conversation from anywhere at any time. Alex says it's still fascinating that you can reach so many people for free.
In the beginning, Alex directed his live videos with his employee as the Periscope star. They created fun content such as jumping in a pool, which had nothing to do with Alex's area of expertise. After a few weeks, Alex's business partners shared their concern that this fun content wasn't professional, especially because Alex was COO of the company. Alex agreed that their point was valid, so he decided to change his subject matter.
With 10 years of experience in social media, Alex knew people would have questions about how to use this new platform. He decided to use his expertise to help people understand how to build their audience with live video.
I ask Alex to share a snapshot of his audience today. Alex says that in only two years, he's built his audience from nothing to 230,000 followers and 55 million hearts on Periscope. Through cross-promotion, Alex has attracted a total of 400,000 followers on social media. To build that audience, Alex says his experience working in social media, building companies, and training people gave him the necessary expertise, but live video technology was also a critical gateway.
Listen to the show to learn about Alex's first live broadcast on Periscope.
Advice for Going Live
Alex says that even after doing more than 1,000 Periscope broadcasts, he still gets nervous. For Alex, three questions spin around in his head when he thinks about going live: "Who are the people watching me? Will they like me? What will I tell them?"
Alex has found that his viewers are regular people who are early live video adopters and curious about what he has to say.
When you provide something that's valuable, Alex believes people will like you. He says the key is to educate, inspire, or entertain viewers.
As far as what to tell viewers, Alex believes people watching live video are always interested in five topics:

by @ Social Media Marketing Podcast helps your business thrive with social media

Fri Oct 23 03:00:47 PDT 2015

Do you create videos for your audience?
Are you curious about what works on YouTube?
To discover more about YouTube video strategy, I interview Owen Hemsath.
More About This Show
The Social Media Marketing podcast is an on-demand talk radio show from Social Media Examiner. It's designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.
In this episode I interview Owen Hemsath, a YouTube consultant and president of Videospot, a YouTube consultancy that helps authors and brands succeed on YouTube. Owen also writes on YouTube strategy for ReelSEO.
Owen will explore how to put together a smart YouTube plan and how to monetize your YouTube videos.
You'll discover the importance of video today, as well as the biggest mistakes marketers make with YouTube.
Share your feedback, read the show notes and get the links mentioned in this episode below.
Listen Now
You can also subscribe via iTunes, RSS, or Stitcher.
Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show:
YouTube Strategy
Owen's story
Owen explains how he decided to pursue his dream of doing video.
When Owen began making videos for his ecommerce website and started making money, he realized he could be more successful helping other business owners leverage YouTube than he could doing his own product demos.
Owen is now a YouTube specialist and has a YouTube course that teaches the process of building a YouTube channel for business.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgbwS4kfwyY
He currently spends 60% of his time working with clients in a group setting and 40% of his time acting as manager for bigger channels that are looking to connect with brands and monetize.
Listen to the show to learn about Owen's early experience making videos.
The importance of video today
Owen believes that because relationships can be formed through digital communication and social media these days, the value we place on face-to-face interaction has been minimized. Video brings that face-to-face interaction to everyone, since people can use video to develop a one-way relationship with their viewers.
He shares that this type of interaction can take place on YouTube, Snapchat, Facebook video, the live-streaming apps (Meerkat, Periscope and Blab), Twitter and Instagram video.
Owen explains the relationship between Google and YouTube, and why you're more likely to be found on search if you're leveraging a video content strategy in your overall marketing plan.
Listen to the show to hear Owen's thoughts on why people are turning to video, movie comparisons to YouTube and predictions for the future.
Mistakes marketers make with YouTube
The first thing Owen cautions against is using YouTube as a compilation channel, a holding ground for every video you've ever made. For instance, you may have a couple of Q&A videos with your staff, an old commercial and some home video of the company picnic. All of these videos have low views, and there's no real cohesive strategy.
The second thing Owen calls out is violations of what he refers to as the 3 Ps: Platform, Purpose and People.
Marketers often violate the Platform when they repurpose their non-YouTube video content (Google hangouts, Meerkat videos or portrait videos) for YouTube.
Repurposing leads to a violation against People. YouTubers want to engage with your content, comment and be a part of your community. He says that when marketers repurpose, such as putting their Meerkat videos on YouTube, they're telling their audience they don't care enough to create content for them.
The third violation involves Purpose. Marketers need to have a purpose for their videos. They must figure out what they're trying to communicate with their video and the business objective of that video, whether it's to build subscribers, get more shares, grow a list or sell a product. Marketers who don't consider purpose when developing their content strateg...

by @ Social Media Marketing Podcast helps your business thrive with social media

Fri May 01 03:00:34 PDT 2015

Do you want more people to talk about your brand or business?
Want to discover how to get the ball rolling?
To learn about word-of-mouth marketing, I interview Ted Wright.
More About This Show
The Social Media Marketing podcast is an on-demand talk radio show from Social Media Examiner. It's designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.
In this episode I interview word-of-mouth marketer Ted Wright, author of the book, Fizz: Harness the Power of Word of Mouth Marketing to Drive Brand Growth. He's also the founder of Fizz, an agency that specializes in word-of-mouth marketing. His clients include Intuit, Pabst Blue Ribbon, Verizon, Intel and many others.
In this episode Ted will explore word-of-mouth marketing.
You'll discover why word-of-mouth marketing is important in the age of social media, as well as things you can do to get people talking.
Share your feedback, read the show notes and get the links mentioned in this episode below.
Listen Now
You can also subscribe via iTunes, RSS, or Stitcher. How to subscribe/review on iPhone.
Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show:
Word of Mouth
How Ted became interested in word-of-mouth marketing
Ted talks about when he attended the University of Chicago School of Business in 1999. At that time the computer lab was basically a windowless cave with 20 rows of 20 computers each, Ted recalls. Early one morning working in the lab, he noticed the ambient light was blue. It was because the Netscape screen was mostly blue, and that's the site everyone used.
After 20 minutes or so of searching fruitlessly and getting frustrated with Netscape, somebody leaned over and suggested Ted try Google, which he did.
Ted's test search term was his mother's name, Dr. Lynette Wright, a fairly famous medical geneticist. However, since they share the same last name as the guys who invented airplanes, most search engines easily got confused.
"Google returned my mother as the second search term, instead of eight pages deep, which was the norm for